


The Age of Paradox- Book 2.5: Miracle Day

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: The Age of Paradox [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Faction Paradox (Doctor Who), Jenny has a new name, miracle day au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23650012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: After their return from a parallel world, the Doctor, Amy, Natalie and K9 join forces with Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper to solve the mystery of the Miracle that erased death. Faced with such an unconventional threat, the Doctor must explore how far he will go in the name of history when so many lives are at stake in a manner he can't easily condemn or overcome.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/Amy Pond, Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams
Series: The Age of Paradox [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702561
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. The New World

"OK," Natalie looked around the console room in frustration as she got back to her feet. " _What_ just happened?"

"That's… look, what _was_ that?" Amy looked anxiously at the Doctor, even as she crouched down to put K9 back on his wheels from where he had fallen onto his side. "I mean, I get that we weren't having a regular trip, but if you were prepared for it and we were heading back to our universe… it shouldn't have been _that_ rough, right?"

"Quite," the Doctor nodded grimly at her as he studied the monitor on the console. "I was trying to ensure that we've have a smooth trip by setting the coordinates for Earth to give us a stable point to focus on, and the old girl's still at full power so we're definitely back in our home universe, but it looks like there was something around Earth; the TARDIS basically had to pick up speed to penetrate some kind of artron-infused barrier…"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And that barrier's still there."

"Barrier?" Natalie asked. "There's something around Earth?"

"Is it dangerous?" Amy asked.

"Hard to be sure," the Doctor said, still staring thoughtfully at the monitor. "As far as I can tell, this barrier shouldn't stop us travelling anywhere on Earth so long as we're just making short hops through space, but I'm not sure if it would be possible for us to travel in time, and… well, we essentially don't have the space to get out of this barrier from the inside…"

"Because… we don't have the space necessary to breach the time barrier?" Amy asked, smiling as an analogy occurred to her. "Like the trouble Doc had in _Back to the Future III_?"

"What?" Natalie looked at Amy in confusion.

"It's a time-travel film made in the eighties," Amy explained, smiling as she recalled the weekend she and the Doctor had watched the film as part of her training in temporal mechanics and four-dimensional thinking. "Long story short, a scientist developed a time machine from an old car, but it can only travel in time if it's reached a speed of at least eighty-eight miles per hour to 'breach the time barrier' or something like that, so a key challenge in the third film is getting the car back up to that speed after it's damaged back in the eighteen hundreds and he doesn't have the resources to fix it up."

"OK… and what does that have to do with this?"

"Basically, just like the DeLorean needed to reach a certain speed to travel in time, the barrier around Earth is too strong for us to break free of its influence because we can't build up enough power to breach it," the Doctor explained, his attention focused on the monitor for a moment before he smiled. "Still, on the bright side, I've worked out where we landed; we're in Porth Teigr, just outside of Cardiff, only a couple of years after Amy and I left Leadworth."

"That's… good?" Amy asked.

"When I have a friend who works nearby, yes it is," the Doctor smiled at her before he shrugged thoughtfully. "I admit, I'm not that sure of his working hours, but at the very least we can probably wait at his office until he gets in and have a bit of a chat about things then."

"He'd know about this… barrier thing?" Natalie asked.

"If he doesn't, he can probably help us find someone who will," the Doctor nodded as he reached over to open the doors. "Let's go."

"All of us?" Natalie asked.

"All of us," the Doctor nodded at K9, understanding his daughter's query. "It's dark, so he shouldn't attract too much attention, and Jack won't mind him."

"Jack?" Amy asked.

"Captain Jack Harkness," the Doctor explained as he led the way out of the ship, waiting for K9 to roll out of the doors before he locked the TARDIS and led the way along the small road the ship had materialised alongside. "He was born in the fifty-first century, but after he joined the Time Agency, he ended up running into me during an incident in the Second World War, and we travelled together for a while."

"And he left you to stay here?" Amy asked.

"These days, Jack runs a group dedicated to observing and protecting a rift in time and space that exists within Cardiff," the Doctor explained, as the four of them walked over a small bridge. "I've looked in on him when he calls me or when I need help, but… well, dropping in to see him wouldn't have helped me stay discreet while we were living in Leadworth."

"That… makes sense," Amy nodded tentatively. "So… he knows about time travel?"

"And aliens, and a range of advanced technology," the Doctor confirmed. "Jack has a tendency to take a more direct approach to things than I might like, but he does what he can, and I like to think I helped him be better."

"Better?" Natalie asked.

"When we met he was pulling various scams on other time travellers by getting them to pay him for supposedly valuable artefacts that he knew were going to get blown up before anyone could collect," the Doctor explained. "When he's saving the world from temporal anomalies just because it's the right thing to do, I'd call that a step in the right direction."

"Yes…" Natalie looked uncertainly around herself, before she glanced at her watch. "Should this place be this quiet?"

"Quiet?" Amy glanced at her own watch, noting that the time was only around nine in the evening in late September. She recognised that she hadn't been to Cardiff before, but when they were approaching what looked like a fairly busy dock, with several boats tied up alongside a few buildings that looked to her like restaurants, that all added up to create a place that should have been more populated than this…

With nobody able to satisfactorily answer Natalie's question, the group fell into silence as they continued walking, until they reached the end of the road and walked along the edge of the docks until they reached a large open stone bowl-like formation between a large building and a set of restaurants, with a large water-tower in the centre. A small group of people were gathered around some of the steps on the edge of this stone bowl, consisting of a dark-haired woman in dark leather who seemed to be talking to someone on her mobile in front of the others, a slightly overweight man holding a pink bundle that Amy assumed was a baby, a tall, handsome man in a long blue coat that put her in mind of something from the Second World War, and a dark-skinned man in a dark suit who was hunched over in a manner that suggested he wasn't feeling well.

"Hello, Captain," the Doctor nodded at the man in the blue coat as they reached the edge of the stone bowl just as the woman finished her phone call.

"Doctor?" the man looked up at the sound of the Doctor's voice, revealing a distinctive American accent as he looked at the Time Lord in surprise, uncertainly replaced by a growing grin. "You changed again?"

"It's been… an interesting time," the Doctor replied as he walked down the steps to shake the American's hand with a warm smile.

"You know this guy?" the dark-skinned man asked, looking curiously at the new arrivals, his voice revealing another American accent.

"Yeah," the apparent captain said with a smile. "This is-"

"Doctor John Smith, joint scientific advisor and liaison officer to Torchwood and the Unified Intelligence Taskforce," the Doctor explained, stepping forward to shake the dark-skinned man's hand as he got to his feet. "This is my assistant Amelia Pond, our security expert Natalie Kriener, and our dog K9."

"Your… dog?" the man repeated, looking at K9 in confusion where the dog had remained at the edge of the 'bowl'. Amy noticed that the man had his shirt half-open and a large bloodstain on his chest, but since nobody else was making a fuss about it she decided not to pay too much attention to it either.

"Affirmative," K9 reported.

"He's a sophisticated computer system with a fully interactive database and even comes equipped with self-defence capabilities," the Doctor smiled. "I just thought the dog look worked."

"Well… everything helps right now," the dark-haired woman said, walking up to the Doctor with a hopeful smile. "Gwen Cooper; I take it you're the Doctor Jack's told me about?"

"Good things?"

"For the most part," Gwen nodded, before she turned back to Jack. "OK, so we've got the Doctor's help, but what else do we have? I've got the old Eye 5s, but what do we have for weapons?"

"I knew it," the slightly overweight man said with a bitter edge to his voice, looking briefly at the baby before looking at Gwen. "Didn't I say? First sign of trouble, you go running off with Captain Jack Bollocks."

"What choice have I got?" Gwen countered to the other man. "I mean, they rebuilt the tower, now we're rebuilding Torchwood. Isn't that right, Jack?"

"Jack?" the Doctor looked at his old friend, who was staring at a cut on his arm. "What's wrong?"

"I cut my arm," Jack indicated

"OK, can't help but think there's more important things to be worrying about here-" Gwen began.

"No," Jack said, looking urgently between Gwen and the Doctor as he pulled down his sleeve to reveal a bleeding graze on his forearm. "I cut my arm. Look at it. It's not healing."

"Oh," the Doctor said, his eyes widening further as he looked more intently at Jack. " _Oh_ … that's not good."

"So?" Amy looked between the two men in confusion. "What's the big deal?"

"You didn't tell her?" Jack looked at the Doctor in surprise.

"It's been a busy few days, and I only even knew that we were coming here a few minutes ago," the Doctor explained as he directed a firm glare at Jack. "But seriously, how could this have happened?"

"It… makes sense," Gwen said, looking shakily at Jack. "The whole world becomes immortal…"

"And I'm mortal," Jack finished.

"Wait a- the world's _immortal_?" Amy repeated incredulously.

"You didn't know that already?" the dark-skinned man looked at Amy in surprise.

"We've been travelling; we lost track of the news," the Doctor said dismissively before he looked at the other man with new curiosity. "And what happened to your chest?"

"I'll get that seen to," the man said, before he turned his attention back to Jack. "What's important right now is that you're all here when my ride shows up."

"Your 'ride'?" Natalie asked, before an armed police force suddenly gathered around the stone bowl, sirens blaring as people drew their weapons to point at Jack, Gwen, the still-unidentified man with the baby, and the TARDIS crew before any of them could do more than move briskly to the middle of the stone bowl. Amy glanced briefly at K9, but it was easy to confirm that there was nothing the robot dog could do in this situation; even assuming he had the power to stun every one of the new arrivals, he couldn't do it before one of them took _him_ out with a good number of their opponents still standing.

"Andy," Gwen looked urgently at the only unarmed policeman in the group, "you can't do this."

"Orders from above," Andy said apologetically as he stood beside the dark-skinned man. "I'm sorry; he's in charge."

"Since when?" Jack asked.

"He can't arrest us," the overweight man said indignantly. "He's American."

"I hate to bust up your sweet little tea party, but this isn't an arrest; this is a rendition," the man said, walking forward to stand in front of Jack (if he wasn't about to arrest them, Amy would have been impressed that he was still walking when he clearly seemed to be in some pain). "And on behalf of the CIA, under the 456 amendments to US code 3184, I'm extraditing this so-called Torchwood team to the United States of America. Now let's get out of here."

"Wait a- we're not-!" Amy began.

"If you're taking us, you'll want to collect my box," the Doctor cut in as the police force gathered around them.

"Your box?" the apparent CIA repeated, pausing his walk away from the small group to look sceptically at the Doctor.

"It's a large blue police box, just back that way in Porth Tiegr; we decided to leave it there when we got back to Cardiff until I could talk with Captain Harkness," the Doctor explained, waving his hand back the way they'd come. "It's got most of my equipment in it; assuming you're extraditing us to discuss recent events, not only will I need K9 to keep an accurate record of everything, but I'm also going to need that box to give you a decent answer to what's going on here."

"…Fine," the man nodded grudgingly at the Doctor before looking around at the nearest group of policemen. "You heard the man; get his… box."

"Thank you… sorry, you are?"

"Rex Matheson," the man replied, shooting a firm stare at the Doctor. "And that's the last favour I do for you until I get some answers."

"Fair enough," the Doctor nodded back at the now-named Rex before he shot a reassuring smile at Amy, who wished that she could feel half as confident as the Doctor looked.

She could just about guess that the Doctor wanted to get arrested/extradited/whatever was about to happen with Jack and Gwen so they could establish what was actually going on, but if Gwen was telling the truth and the world had suddenly become immortal, Amy had a worrying feeling that this was going to turn out to be a very difficult situation…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that works as a starting-point for this new turn in the series; next chapter will basically be a 'recap' of recent events for the benefit of the Doctor, Amy, Natalie and K9, but we'll get back to the events of the original crisis after that, and I do have plans to diverge from canon in more detail as the narrative unfolds.


	2. The Miracle

"Right then," the Doctor said, settling back in the car to look at Jack, "what's the situation here, exactly?"

"It's… a bit of a long story," Jack said as he looked back at the Doctor. Despite the abrupt arrival of the police forces at Roald Dahl Plass, the CIA agent responsible- whose name the Doctor had established was Rex Matheson- apparently hadn't been prepared for more than Jack, Gwen and Rhys, so he'd been forced to quickly arrange to 'hire' a small bus that would transport the other three unexpected members of the group. He'd also managed to hire a trailer for transporting the TARDIS, although it had taken a fair argument from the Doctor to convince him to let K9 stay with the rest of the TARDIS crew and Torchwood team in the bus.

"Well," Amy observed as she folded her arms and sat back in the bus, "we've probably got some time until we get to the airport, so you could try and explain it?"

"Starting with why it's such a big deal that you're mortal?" Natalie asked. "I mean, we're all mortal-"

"But Jack Harkness has been a fixed point in time and space since the two of us parted company, which means that he's basically been immortal for over a century," the Doctor clarified.

Amy and Natalie could only stare at Jack in silent incredulity at that revelation, and even K9 seemed to turn slightly from his position on the floor to look at the captain with what could be surprise.

"Immortal?" Amy repeated. "As in… you can't die?"

"I could die, I just wouldn't _stay_ dead," Jack affirmed. "Shoot me, stab me, burn me, whatever you like, and I'd just come back to life a bit later."

"Wow," Natalie said. "I can't decide if that's cool or freaky."

"Yeah, try learning about it when you've dug him out of a collapsed building and you _see_ him come back to life," the overweight man observed. "Oh, Rhys Williams, and this is Anwen; we're Gwen's."

"Amy Pond," Amy shook the other man's hand. "And this is Natalie Kriener; she's the Doctor's daughter."

" _Daughter_?" The other three looked at Natalie in surprise.

"I was grown from a sample taken from Dad on a colony in the far future," Natalie explained with a nonchalant shrug. "So there's no point asking me who my mother is, because I didn't have one; Dad was it, but then he spent a few years thinking I was dead until we ran into each other on the colony of Uxarieus a couple of months ago."

"Ux-where?" Rhys asked.

"It's in the future and that's not important," the Doctor waved his hand dismissively. "And on the topic of Jack's immortality, that was the result of a long and complicated chain of circumstances that I couldn't duplicate even if I wanted to, so like with Natalie's origin, it's best to keep things simple."

"Such as clarifying how it happened, maybe?" Amy asked. "I'm not asking for specific details, anyway; just need to be clear on how he ended up like that."

"He had to absorb the power of the Time Vortex to deal with a massive alien army, and in the process he brought me back to life after one of the enemy killed me during the fight."

"Ah," Amy said, taking a moment to process Jack's words before she looked at the Doctor in surprise. "That's something you can do?"

"It was an emergency situation where I was absolutely sure that I had exhausted every other option to stop the enemy," the Doctor explained. "If nothing else, I ended up having to regenerate after that because of the cellular damage I sustained in the process…"

"And then you changed your face and kicked me out of the TARDIS just after I got back into the thing," Jack observed.

"I was in the middle of a post-regenerative fit and lashing out to get rid of something my instincts told me was a threat; how often do I have to apologise for that?"

"You saw Jack as a threat?" Gwen asked.

"It's the nature of his immortality," the Doctor explained with an awkward shrug. "As a fixed point in time and space, Jack shouldn't even _exist_ according to my awareness of time and space. I was basically acting on instinct when I brought him back to life and couldn't control what I was doing, and while I was willing to let him stay afterwards on a conscious level, when I regenerated I was operating on instinct…"

"I get it," Jack cut the Doctor off, as he gave the Time Lord a slightly awkward smile. "It's… well, it's been a while since then, and I like to think we worked past the worst of it."

"We're going to need that," the Doctor affirmed, once again looking seriously at the rest of the people in the car. "Whatever's going on here, I have a feeling it's going to take all of us to deal with it."

"Right… so, with our personal history established, what's actually going on here?" Amy asked. "I mean, what's got that Rex guy so worked up that he's dragging us all the way to America to interrogate us, and why does he think we have anything to do with it?"

"A couple of days ago, the human race seems to have lost the ability to die."

"…Well," the Doctor said, after taking a moment to process that revelation in silence. "That was… unexpected."

"We've… lost the ability to die?" Amy repeated in confusion, while Natalie just stared uncertainly at the others. "But… how can you _lose_ the… you're saying we just can't die?"

"There hasn't been a single reported death on Earth for well over twenty-four hours," Gwen nodded in confirmation. "Nobody's died of old age, nobody's died of illness… I mean, my dad's had a stroke and Agent Matheson's apparently been impaled through the chest and they're both still alive when doctors have confirmed they should be dead."

"And I saw a suicide bomber get his head separated from his body and it was still blinking," Jack added.

"Suicide bomber?" the Doctor looked sharply at Jack.

"I didn't make him blow himself up or anything; I just looked at his body when it was taken to the morgue after he set off the bombs," Jack explained, a brief edge to his voice as he looked at the Doctor. "I suggested they cut the last tendon connecting the head and the body to see what would happen, but the body was completely pulverized; he'd have needed to be… well, _me_ if he was going to get better from that."

"And I take it that doesn't apply?"

"From everything I've seen and heard, the only thing that's changed is that nobody can die, but everything else about us as a species is still the same," Jack explained. "Obviously we can't know how aging has been affected by this shift this early on, but from what I can tell, people are still healing at the normal rate after they get hurt, Gwen's dad proves that we're still getting sick… and as I just mentioned, I don't have my old accelerated healing any more."

"Understood," the Doctor nodded. "So why does Agent Matheson think this has anything to do with Torchwood?"

"Because at what appears to be the same moment the last death occurred, someone sent out an e-mail with the word 'Torchwood' to every major intelligence service on the planet," Jack explained. "I was able to delete most of our online data to keep our activities discreet, and I'm fairly sure that we never did _anything_ that might have caused _this_ mess, but Agent Matheson's assistant must have managed to find a few offline files I missed as he was able to find Gwen's house, and now… well, here we are."

"Rhys and I were attacked just as Agent Matheson got there, but we were attacked by someone else in a helicopter before Jack was able to step in and save us," Gwen explained.

"I see…" the Doctor nodded thoughtfully, before he looked between Jack and Gwen. "And this is your team? What happened to… Ianto, wasn't it?"

"Dead," Jack said, an edge to his voice making it clear that the Doctor shouldn't pry any further.

"Right then," the Doctor nodded in a firmer matter as he sat back in his chair and looked over at Jack. "So we've got the human race stuck in a state where they can't die but are apparently able to do everything else, caused by some unknown party that wanted to draw attention to Torchwood for some reason as they kicked it all off; not the best situation I've ever been in, and a few questions that need answered, but this could be a lot worse."

"Hold on; it's _bad_ that we've lost the ability to die?" Rhys looked at the Doctor in surprise. "I mean, Gwen's dad's already been saved by this-"

"After he's had a stroke that should have killed him and he's still ill from it?" Gwen put in.

"Exactly," the Doctor observed. "Whatever caused this, it's still in the first couple of days, which means humanity's still processing the full consequences of what's been done to it, but whether this is a misguided attempt to help the human race or a twisted and very complicated coup, either way it has to be stopped before things get worse."

"In what way?" Natalie asked.

"Hopefully it won't get that bad before we can stop it," the Doctor said, a solemn edge to his voice that told his old companions more than they wanted to know.

However things stood at the moment, if the human race had really lost the ability to die but hadn't acquired any kind of enhanced healing to go with it, the Doctor had some very grim ideas about how the human race was going to cope with its new state, and none of them were good.

_I'm not even sure if I should be focused on who caused this or worrying about the consequences if humanity has to deal with this immortality long-term…_


	3. Extradition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To confirm in advance, for the moment events for Oswald Danes and the other as-yet-unseen characters are unfolding just as they did in canon; you'll know when things start to change.  
> Minor detail to be addressed here; certain novels- "The Devil Goblins from Neptune" and "The King of Terror" in particular- revealed that the CIA had an anti-alien division run by a man known only as 'Control', who it was suggested had some ties to Gallifrey's Celestial Intervention Agency considering such clues as him never aging between his meetings with the Brigadier in 1970 and 1999. However, since the novels also mentioned that he appeared to be dying of old age by 2003 ("Time Zero"), likely due to the destruction of Gallifrey, I'm going to assume that he's out of the picture by the time these events occurred; the Doctor's only thinking about Control because he doesn't know the man's current status for certain, but there are no plans to include him.

"They can't do this!" Gwen said indignantly as the group were led out of the cars at the airport, the TARDIS crew and the former Torchwood staff in handcuffs. "I'm a British citizen on British soil!"

"Me too!" Amy put in.

"You've probably been a bit busy watching aliens," Rhys shook his head. "Fact is that Americans have been getting away with this sort of stuff for years."

"Hey, hey, hey, what's that supposed to be, a criticism?" Agent Matheson put in as he walked up to the group, a smug grin on his face that Gwen wished she could punch off. "What are you gonna do, write to your MP? And you two-" he added, as he removed Jack's vortex manipulator and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver from the respective time-travellers, "I'll take these."

"Those are harmless," the Doctor looked grimly at the CIA agent.

"Then you won't mind me having them."

The Doctor simply glared silently back at Rex as the man walked off with the two objects in his pocket, already judging the extent to which he should dislike this man as the agent began to talk with an unfamiliar Asian-American woman waiting by the plane. He had no obvious reason to regard Rex as an outright enemy, as Rex at least seemed to want to find an explanation for the strange loss of death, but he also had no reason to like the idea of being basically press-ganged like this…

"How's that cut on your arm?" Gwen looked over at Jack.

"I'll survive," Jack said. "I'm mortal, not dying."

"Well, no more than everyone else is at the moment, anyway," the Doctor smiled, before his expression became more solemn. "Which raises the question of whether what's happened to you has a deeper meaning or is just a very unlucky coincidence."

"Why would it be a coincidence?" Gwen asked.

"Why not?" Rhys observed, awkwardly shrugging his shoulders. "We basically just all got switched, right? Nothing to do with Jack if the wires got crossed. Everything mortal becomes immortal, so everything immortal becomes mortal."

"That's… something to consider, certainly," the Doctor nodded, even as he privately doubted that assessment; Jack's immortality went beyond the fact that he healed from everything thrown at him…

"OK, let's go," Rex said as he walked back up to the group from where he had been talking with someone by the plane. "Get 'em on the plane; take the husband back to Wales."

"What?" Amy and Natalie looked at Rhys in surprise as a couple of policemen grabbed him, prompting yells of protest from Gwen in particular.

"What the hell?" the dark-haired Welsh woman finally focused her yells on Agent Matheson. "Where are you taking him?"

"I'm arresting Torchwood," Rex responded. "Is he Torchwood? No; he's a spouse. World War Two's allegedly in charge, you're the second, these guys are claiming bow-tie's the science guy, redhead's his assistant and the woman's the security, but we don't need him and we don't need the baby. Now you go; get out of here."

"Give me my daugh-!" Gwen yelled as another agent took the baby girl out of the car, before Natalie grabbed her arm.

"Don't make this any bigger than it is," she said, looking urgently at her new associate before shooting a glare at Rex. "I'm sure Agent Matheson here is just appreciating this little power trip, but he's not going to actually _hurt_ Rhys."

Rex simply stared at Natalie and Gwen in silence, but the satisfied grin on his face at least suggested that Natalie had made the correct assessment of him.

"I'll look after her," Rhys said, taking the baby girl in his arms as the rest of the group were led onto the plane. Gwen called out a few final words of support for Rhys and condemnation of Agent Matheson's actions before she set foot on the plane itself.

"What about K9?" the Doctor asked, looking over at his immediate guard as he was led to a seat. "And the TARDIS?"

"Tardis?" the agent repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"The blue box."

"Right…" Agent Matheson nodded in response, before he gave the Doctor a nonchalant smile. "Well, you'll be pleased to know that the box is with your dog in the hold with the rest of the luggage; you'll get all your equipment back at the other end."

"Good," the Doctor nodded, even as his mind raced to consider the best way of approaching things once the plane had landed. Whatever his thoughts on Agent Matheson's motives, he didn't have any reason to think that Control was involved with this, but he still couldn't afford to give anyone at the CIA access to the TARDIS interior, even if he needed the TARDIS if he was going to trace whatever had done this to the human race…

"Uh… Doctor?" Amy said as the CIA agents moved away from the group, keeping her voice low as she leaned over to look awkwardly at the Time Lord. "Sorry if this sounds a bit… I mean, if the human race suddenly can't die any more… does that apply to me?"

"Huh?" Gwen looked at Amy in surprise. "Why wouldn't it… you weren't _here_ when the Miracle happened, right?"

"Only got here a few minutes before we met you," Amy nodded tentatively as she kept glancing at the agents up front who were still watching the group cautiously, even if they seemed prepared to dismiss the current talk as unimportant. "I mean, the Doctor and Natalie aren't human, so they're probably not affected by it, and K9's _definitely_ immune, but… would this thing have done anything to me if I missed the moment it all got set off?"

"Good… question," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "I mean, it all depends on whether we're dealing with something that had to be triggered at one moment or whether it's caused a continuous effect that affected you once you returned to this time period…"

"If it helps, it looks like it affected me when I wasn't on Earth, but I was still in the same time period-"

"You weren't on Earth?" the Doctor looked sharply at Jack. "What happened?"

"…Things went wrong," Jack said, his tone becoming grimmer as he stared out of the window. "I had to get away for a while."

Nodding in tentative understanding, the Doctor fell into silence himself, exchanging glances with his companion and his daughter even as he kept his fingers crossed, hoping that he hadn't brought up a particularly difficult topic for his old friend.

Until he could get the TARDIS back, he had to work out what was going on with nothing but his own insight, which meant that his biggest question was working out what about this situation could affect Jack specifically. Jack's immortality went beyond the former Time Agent being biologically incapable of dying, and there shouldn't be anything technological that could affect his status as a Fact, but Jack had clearly lost his accelerated healing factor at what was likely the same time as the rest of humanity had lost the ability to die…

"So who are you?"

"Mmm?" the Doctor looked politely up at Agent Matheson as the man took up position sitting against the chair at the end of the Doctor's current row. "I told you, I'm Torchwood's scientific advisor-"

"Who doesn't appear on any of the records my assistant managed to dig up on that organisation, and I can't even trace a damn _record_ for you or your alleged 'security expert'," Rex observed. "And as for your stupid dog-"

"His _name_ is K9."

"Yeah, where the hell did you actually _get_ something like that?"

"If you're still asking that question, you're not ready to hear the answer," the Doctor replied as he settled back into his chair. "I'll let you know when you are."

"Right…" Rex shook his head in exasperation before he turned around and walked into the plane lavatory, evidently giving up on the conversation as unimportant in the current situation, holding a small container in his hands that the Doctor suspected contained some kind of pain medication. Judging by the way Rex was holding a hand over his chest, he guessed that the agent had suffered some kind of injury recently, most likely Miracle-related, that was still causing him some kind of pain, but the Doctor doubted it was anything too serious with the current immortality taken into account.

 _Which raises the question of how this affects humanity's ability to_ heal, the Doctor suddenly reflected. Based on what he'd heard so far, the human race hadn't acquired Jack's accelerated healing ability, but even if certain injuries like that suicide bomber Jack had told him about would probably remain permanent, did that mean that comparatively lesser injuries like Agent Matheson's apparent chest wound would eventually get better now that the man wasn't going to die of it?

"…no way of knowing Rex was gonna pull that stunt," Jack was saying to Gwen as the Doctor's attention returned to the current situation.

"But you know the way it works, Jack," Gwen said. "Every time anyone ever gets close to you, nobody has a normal life again."

"He gets that from the Doctor," Amy put in with a tentative smile that made it clear she wasn't sure if what she was about to say would be appreciated. "I met him once when I was seven and things weren't normal even before he came back for me seven years later."

"He came back for you?" Jack looked curiously at her.

"Best day of my life," Amy smiled with a tentative shrug. "I mean, we had to stop the planet being destroyed when the Atraxi came looking for an escaped prisoner and were willing to incinerate us to stop it, but what matters is that we did it, right?"

"Well, OK, so it worked for you and him, but with me and Jack it just… it _really_ pisses me off," Gwen cut in, shooting a brief apologetic look at Amy before turning back to Jack. "What took you so long? I have to nearly explode before you turn up?"

"Did you miss me?" Jack smiled.

"Yes," Gwen conceded automatically, before she looked away with a more solemn expression, Jack sitting beside her in silence until she spoke again. "I… I started to think it'd be like some kind of fairy tale; I'd be an old woman and you'd just turn up out of the blue and visit my granddaughter. I'd be ancient and you'd be exactly the same."

Listening to the story, Amy suddenly wondered if that was going to be her fate some day. She might be committed to staying with the Doctor for the foreseeable future, but she had to recognise that she'd probably have to leave him some day, if only because she was too old to keep up the pace of their lives. After she left, would she keep glimpsing that blue box everywhere she looked? Would she hear that wheezing sound in every backfired car engine? Every unidentified noise?

_What happens when you move on from life with the Doctor?_

"Where did you go, Jack?" Gwen asked.

"A long way away," Jack replied solemnly.

"And did it help?"

"Hey, lovebirds," Agent Matheson cut in, squatting in the middle of the aisle as he held up Jack's vortex manipulator, "let me ask you a question; what the hell is this thing? All it does is go beep."

"So give it back to me," Jack said.

"And maybe return my… tool?" the Doctor cut in.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd like that," Rex said, looking dismissively at the Doctor before his attention returned to Jack. "What does it do? Measure how mortal you are?"

"Still don't believe me?" Jack responded.

"Please," Rex chuckled.

"The world's suddenly lost the ability to die, and Jack's crazy because he thinks he _can_ die?" Natalie pointed out.

"Look, talking of the whole problem here, do you actually have a plan for what you're going to do to us when we land?" Amy asked.

"You'll be interrogated."

"You stupid, tiny, bloody little man," Gwen cut in with a bitter glare. "For starters, we don't know anything. And even if we did, why didn't you just ask?"

"Oh, hey, listen, I'm sorry, maybe I didn't explain it earlier," Rex said. "Doctor Smith over there raises a few possibilities, but he's too new to have anything to do with this shit if he's not even on your team records, and the rest of you guys don't exactly strike me as the sharpest tools in the shed. What you are is connected, and someone's made a link between that old Institute of yours and the Miracle, and now they want to kill you for it. So we work out what the connection is, and then we start to solve it."

"And obviously the best way to do that is to take us all the way to America and interrogate us about something we can't know anything _definite_ about rather than leave us in Wales where we'd have access to any of our remaining records and might be able to give you more detailed insight?" the Doctor asked. He might be inclined to think of Agent Matheson as an ally against whatever had caused this mess, but he wasn't a fan of the man's 'this plan works because it's my plan' attitude so far.

"My thoughts exactly," Jack nodded at the Doctor before he turned back to Rex. "And on the topic of what we might or might not know, has anyone done any investigation on morphic fields?"

"On what?" Rex asked.

"The Sheldrake theory," Jack explained nonchalantly. "The passing of connective information through the process of morphic resonance."

"I'm sure it is-" Rex began.

"Is this anything like that theory that if a bunch of monkeys learn something then another bunch of monkeys somewhere else will start doing it?" Amy asked, shrugging slightly as the agent looked sceptically at her. "I read it in a comic book."

"Basically," Jack nodded at her in approval before he looked back at Rex. "The principle might seem like science fiction, but it works because every species is connected through a morphic field."

"You expect me to buy this?" Rex asked with an awkward chuckle.

"We're asking you to consider it," Natalie put in.

"And consider how this affected everyone at the same time," Jack continued. "We have records of the last recorded death taking place at basically the same time on a global scale, and then death stops for everyone, _everywhere_."

"And _that_ ," the Doctor nodded, "is a morphic event on a scale I haven't seen before."

"Oh, and your sodium's low."

"What?" Rex looked at Jack in confusion.

"That bleeping," Jack noted. "It's found low sodium levels in your blood."

"You need salt," Amy grinned.

Rex simply shook his head as he walked away, leaving the mixed Torchwood/TARDIS team to take in the surrounding captors once again. Amy noticed one woman with her head bent over in a manner that suggested she was sending a message, but without knowing more about this team, she couldn't be sure if that was something she should be worried about or just be annoyed that people were still keeping things secret from them.

 _The Doctor warned me that sometimes local authorities wouldn't like what we were trying to do, but this is going a bit beyond people just panicking in the face of the unknown_ …


	4. Poison on the Plane

Even after hundreds of years trying to protect people from their own mistakes, the Doctor wished that he could work out a consistent way to avoid being arrested and accused of having some role in whatever he was trying to stop. The only advantage of the current situation was that Rex had at least confirmed that he didn't think the Torchwood team had anything to do with the Miracle itself, but they still had to face being _treated_ like terrorists because it seemed like most of the agents couldn't agree with what they were actually being charged with or how they should be regarded. It had taken a brief debate to even get them permission for a drink, and the Doctor was still trying to work out anything useful about this unconventional crisis, which wasn't exactly helped when so many people here were looking suspiciously at him.

 _How am I meant to give any of these people useful information if they don't share anything with us_?

"I'm…" Jack began, voice trailing off as he stood up, only to fall over on his face.

"Jack?" the Doctor looked anxiously at his friend.

"Back in your seat," the female agent (the Doctor thought he'd heard someone refer to her as Lyn) said, as Rex moved to grab Jack.

"I'm gonna throw up…" Jack said, the Doctor noting that Jack was looking unusually clammy-skinned.

"We've got him!" Natalie said, running over to help Rex.

"You know," Rex looked at Jack as he led the man towards the toilet, "it'd be really ironic if you were airsick, dressed up like a flying ace and all."

"I look like Hell," Jack observed as he staggered into the airplane toilet, Natalie standing by Rex despite her own handcuffs.

"Yeah, your looks are exactly what we're concerned about here-" Rex began.

"Are you even paying _attention_ to the situation you want to question us about?" Amy glared at the American agent from her own suit. "Someone was already trying to take out Torchwood, and now the only man who might actually still be able to die is ill?"

"Look, I know the food's not too hot, but I doubt this guy's been poisoned, OK?" Rex glared at the redhead before he turned his attention back to Jack. "People get sick. It happens."

"Maybe you're right," Jack shook his head tentatively. "Every bug in the world is probably out to get me. I haven't developed any resistance. I never needed it-"

"What are you saying?" Rex asked, as the sound of someone vomiting in the bathroom prompted an uncomfortable wince from Natalie. "Immortality leads to hypochondria?"

"More like over a century with access to a super-immune system means that even his natural immunities have worn down now that he isn't immortal any more," the Doctor pointed out from his seat. "There are reasons why creating fixed points in time are a bad idea beyond the temporal implications-"

"OK, enough with the science crap; if you can't give me a goddamn straight answer, don't bother," Rex said, before Jack let out a gasp and fell over.

"Jack?" Gwen anxiously examined her fallen boss, joined by the Doctor as Natalie and Amy looked anxiously at the apparent ex-immortal. "Is he-?"

"Not dead, but he's definitely not well," the Doctor observed grimly. "And this goes _far_ beyond him just dealing with the illnesses he never caught when he was immortal…"

He looked over at Rex and the other gathered agents. "What medication have you got here?"

"Don't talk to the prisoners-" Lyn began.

"You gave him a drink," Gwen glared over at Lyn as the agent sat nonchalantly behind them. "What did you do to him? What was in it?"

"Take it easy-" Rex began.

"Are you saying we poisoned him?" the steward asked.

"Jack drinks the water and he gets sick; what are we supposed to think?" Natalie asked.

"If you did anything, you'd better bloody tell me," Gwen protested.

"I didn't!" the steward said indignantly. "She was with me! Tell them; I didn't touch the drinks, did I?"

"This is ridiculous; nobody's poisoned anyone-" Lyn began.

"Then what were you doing over there?" Natalie looked firmly at the woman, still standing in the aisle.

"What?"

"You said you went to supervise him," Natalie clarified. "Who needs supervising pouring a drink?"

"So now you're accusing everyone-?"

"It's either you or the big gay steward, so my money's on you."

"I'm not gay," the man protested.

"Just search her, Rex," Gwen looked over at the agent. "Please."

"Look, you know no one can die right now-" Rex began.

"And what if you're wrong about that, Rex Matheson?" the Doctor cut the agent off with a cold glare. "More precisely, what if we're right and someone's just poisoned the only man on Earth who _can_ still die? I'm not saying that Jack's key to helping you figure out what's going on, but if someone wants to kill him that means someone at least thinks he could be dangerous to their current plans; at least check out our story before you dismiss it."

"…All right, if it'll shut you up," Rex sighed. "Let me see your bag."

"Put that down!" Lyn yelled as Rex grabbed her bag.

"You stay right there," Rex said, glaring at the woman as he nonchalantly tossed out the contents of her bag, until he pulled out a small baggie full of blue capsules

"What did we say?" Gwen said indignantly. "Poison."

"Is that the first assumption you make when you find medicine in someone's handbag?" the woman countered.

"So," Natalie said coolly, "if it's medicine, I suppose that you'd be willing to take one yourself?"

"That's a damn good idea," Rex affirmed. "Take it."

"Why would I take that?" Lyn rolled her eyes. "It's poison."

"Which you keep available just to ensure that any other agents who might need it have the option?" the Doctor said, looking coolly at the woman. "This is why I've never gotten along with America; you're always so willing to rely on the solution that involves killing people to accomplish anything."

"And if you didn't give him anything, there's no harm telling us what kind of poison is in this bag," Rex said. The silence he received in response was enough for Rex to force the woman back into her chair despite her protests, even as she continued denying that she'd given Jack anything.

"Right then," the Doctor said, taking one of the pills out of the bag, placing it on the tip of his tongue for a moment before he removed the pill and looked over at Jack. "These are definitely human manufacture, and you haven't changed colour beyond going pale, so I'm inclined to think arsenic; you?"

"Sounds good," Jack said, smiling despite his discomfort and his weak voice as he tested one of the pills in his hands. "I had a boyfriend… who took arsenic… same consistency."

"You had a boyfriend that took arsenic?" Amy asked.

"Yeah," Jack smiled. "Slovenian. Took arsenic for better skin."

"Hold up; I've read about that," Rex looked at Jack in confusion. "That was back in the eighteen hundreds-"

"Jack gets around a lot," the Doctor cut Rex off. "What's important is that we fix this."

"I take it this isn't one of your areas of expertise?" Gwen looked anxiously at the Doctor.

"Not when I'm not the one being poisoned, and for obvious reasons we can't adapt that to this," the Doctor confirmed, before he looked over at Rex. "Do you know a doctor we can call?"

"…Maybe," Rex said, glancing at his watch in thought for a few moments before he turned his gaze back on the Doctor. "Should be available now; I'll give her a call."

As Rex took out his phone and put it to his ear, the Doctor was already racking his brain to try and think of anything they could try at this end; he might call himself a doctor of 'practically everything', but medicine was a field he just didn't put into practice that often beyond diagnosing his companions' injuries, and he didn't have many resources right now anyway…

"How do you cure arsenic poisoning?" Rex said, waiting a moment for the person on the other end to respond. "Listen, I have someone here with a headache, nausea and convulsions; we think he was given arsenic… No, _don't_ hang up, just listen; we are stuck on a plane over the Atlantic; what else can we do?"

"And make it clear that Jack may still be able to die!" Amy called over.

"That was… one of this guy's friends," Rex said in response to something on the other end of the line before he continued in a grim tone. "Look, I'm starting to seriously think this man can die; what else can we do for him?"

There was a tense moment of silence before he spoke again. "OK, chelation; what is it?"

"The process of removing toxic metals from the body by introducing competing chemicals that bind together to make them inactive," the Doctor finished.

"Are you saying… we cure Jack by giving him _another_ poison to counteract the one he just took?" Amy put in.

"Spot on, Pond," the Doctor grinned at his current companion before he grimly looked at his older one.

"So what do we give him?" Rex asked, holding the phone out as he turned it to loudspeaker.

" _I suppose… EDTA_ ," a woman's voice said from the phone. " _But if you're on a plane, you won't have that_."

"What's EDTA?" Gwen asked.

" _Who are you_?" the woman asked.

"Just tell me, what's EDTA?" Gwen yelled urgently.

" _Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid_."

"Which we can create with formaldehyde and ethylenediamine; got you," the Doctor nodded.

" _Wh- who's that_?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord replied, as Rex shook his head in frustration and tossed the handcuff keys to the other man. "And before you ask, I'm not a primarily medical doctor, so your input is still appreciated."

" _You're… how does the CIA not have someone to deal with this_?" the woman protested.

"Because someone in the CIA just poisoned him and we're trying to adapt to _really_ freaky circumstances; can we focus on the need to keep our friend _alive_ here?" Amy protested as the Doctor released her from her handcuffs.

" _Oh my God_ …" the woman said at the other end.

"Look, just stay on the line; I'm going to see what we can find at this end," the Doctor said, looking urgently between Amy and Natalie even as he addressed the phone. "We need a way to oxidise methanol at thirty thousand feet; we might be able to get some from laptop batteries if they're using methanol fuel cells…"

"I'll get right on that," Amy nodded, grabbing the male steward by the arm and dragging him off to check the luggage.

"Silver," the Doctor snapped his fingers. "And ammonia; we need silver for the catalyst and ammonia to help us filter it…"

"Silver right here!" Rex called out, grabbing a necklace from the female agent, who glared bitterly up at him even as she stayed handcuffed in her seat.

"We can get ammonia from the cleaning supplies," Gwen added as she waved the female stewardess into action.

"And how's this for a mixing bowl?" Natalie cut in, hurrying over with a recently-emptied metal coffee jug.

"It'll do," the Doctor said, studying the jug and muttering to himself for a moment before he looked at the others. "We're going to need dichloroethane; it might be in a degreaser…"

"We don't have that stuff," the stewardess said.

"You don't?" the Doctor looked anxiously at the woman.

"We don't exactly go around degreasing with our bare hands; the automated system takes care of everything-"

"Automated system?" Gwen said sharply. "What automated system?"

"The ACRS," the stewardess explained. "It works like the de-icer. There's a central pump and then there's the tubing that distributes it throughout the plane."

"Tubing?" Natalie repeated.

"Orange tubing."

"Where is it?"

"In the floor."

"Right," Natalie nodded, crouching down to rip up a strip of carpet.

"You're damaging the floor-"

"And we'll rip this plane apart with our bare hands if we have to," Gwen glared as she grabbed the woman down. "Now get over there and help."

As the Doctor kept mixing the chemicals they had gathered already, he ignored the female agent's dismissive observations of their efforts as Gwen and Natalie ripped up the floor and wall panels to try and find the tubing. Amy watched from the side as Gwen and Rex exchanged bitter comments, anxiously searching for the orange tubing with the degreaser, before Gwen slammed her palm against the floor.

"There's no damn orange tube here!" the ex-cop yelled.

"Maybe you're not looking in the right place?" Amy put in.

"What?" Gwen looked urgently at her.

"Degreasers are used on grease, right?" Amy explained. "So grease would be on the moving parts, which on a plane would be-"

"The access conduit to the landing gear!" Rex finished for her before turning to the male steward. "Where's that?"

With a new sense of certainty behind their actions, the group moved on, literally tearing a set of seats out of their position to reveal a new panel.

"Anything?" the Doctor asked, carefully studying the coffee jar as it heated and mixed the ingredients in the coffee machine, and wishing that he had the sonic screwdriver to make a more thorough analysis of what he was preparing right now.

"We've got the tube!" Natalie grinned as she indicated the relevant tube amid the collection before them.

"OK, give me your knife," Gwen waved an urgent hand. "Give me your knife."

"Wait a minute; we've got to be careful because it's not labelled," Rex cut in even as he passed Gwen the requested knife, clearly acknowledging that this wasn't the time to argue. "If it's part of the oil system, we're screwed."

"Yeah, whatever," Gwen said, as she sliced the orange tube and clear liquid spurted out under the pressure.

"Here you go," Amy said, stepping forward with a small plastic cup.

"We're ready over here!" the Doctor called out from his small kitchen. "We just need to add that degreaser and the cyanide and we're ready!"

"Cyanide?" the stewardess repeated in surprise.

"Chelation means replacing one toxic substance with another," the Doctor clarified, as he took the cup from Amy and began to crumble a blue cyanide pill with the other. "If we've done it right, it's not enough to kill Jack…"

"And here," the male steward added, passing the group a syringe. "I knew diabetes would be useful one day."

"Lovely," Gwen mused as she filled the syringe. "We're going to need your tie; come on, let's get this over with…"

"I've got the coat!" Amy smiled, holding Jack's coat in her arms.

"OK, take the sleeve up…" Gwen said as she began to adjust Jack's shirt.

"I heard cyanide," Jack said, blinking his eyes weakly open.

"Trust me; we've got this," the Doctor nodded reassuringly.

"No, they don't," Lyn cut in. "Don't let them do this; he'll kill you."

"I trust… the Doctor," Jack shot the woman a brief glare that managed to be surprisingly firm despite his state.

"OK, the vein's here-" the Doctor began, about to inject Jack when the female agent suddenly got up from her chair and moved towards them. Lyn almost grabbed the Doctor's wrist before Natalie intercepted the move and punched the other woman in the face, sending her flying back into the chairs.

"Don't touch him," Natalie said firmly, placing a foot on Lyn's chest as the Doctor injected Jack's arm.

"You really think this is going to solve anything-?" Lyn began as Jack winced from the pain of the injection.

"Maybe not, but Jack won't die and you'll be here to answer a few questions for us," Natalie said, briefly grinding her foot into the agent's stomach just below her breasts. "I can wait to get a few more answers when we land."

"How's Jack?" Gwen looked anxiously at her friend, whose initial pained writhing had come to an end even if he was still clearly in pain.

"The injection's going through his body and it's going to hurt, but he'll get over it," the Doctor affirmed, before he glanced at Rex. "Can I assume that she's going to have a few questions when we get down?"

"Yeah," the CIA agent confirmed, before he slapped a new set of handcuffs on the Time Lord.

"Oh, come _on_!" the Doctor protested, even as he looked over at his companions in a warning glance. "You can't seriously-"

"Mission is still to work out what we're dealing with, which means you come with me," Rex said firmly, while his colleagues applied handcuffs to the three women and led them back to their seats. "World War Two can get a rest before we touch down."

"Some people, huh?" Any glanced over at the Doctor as she was sat down beside him. "And the reason we're not more hacked off about this is…?"

"As observed by another Captain Jack, Pond, all we can do is wait for the opportune moment," the Doctor observed with an apologetic smile as he glanced over at Natalie and Gwen. "Just go with this for now; we'll have time to say our peace soon enough…"


	5. Escaping the Airport

It was funny how life with the Doctor made the more mundane things seem more troubling. Amy had experienced a range of forms of captivity in her time with the Doctor, and he'd taught her a few escapology tricks, but when they were dealing with contemporary law enforcement agencies, it was difficult to accept the fact that there was nothing they could 'legitimately' do. Most of the time the Doctor would have had no problem calling in UNIT to prove he had a legitimate reason for being here, but at the moment he seemed to be willing to let this scenario play out until they had a chance to examine whatever evidence the CIA already had.

Amy wasn't sure if the recent murder attempt had helped their case or not. The fact that someone in the CIA wanted them dead wasn't encouraging, but the fact that Rex had opposed that plan at least suggested they had a few actual allies, even if Amy still felt that Rex should have been willing to at least leave them un-handcuffed in these circumstances. Rex had commented that they could expect a security team to meet them at the airport to take Lynn into custody once they landed, but that didn't exactly help any of them at this point.

As they touched down at Washington Dulles airport, Amy wished that she'd come to America under more conventional circumstances; the Doctor had been contemplating making a visit to some of the more culturally significant cities, but he hadn't gotten around to it yet. The CIA agents led the Doctor, Jack, Amy, Natalie and Gwen off the plane while Rex escorted Lyn just behind them, emerging onto the tarmac to see a group of men in dark suits standing nearby.

"This one too," Agent Matheson said, indicating Lynn to the other agents. "She's under arrest."

"Mr Friedkin wants a full debriefing," one of the other agents said as he walked up to take 'custody' of Lynn. "He has Section chiefs from Clandestine and Intelligence on standby. We have a secure van outside waiting to take prisoners to Langley. This way."

"Thank you," Rex said, before his phone rang, the agent answering the call and listening to the response before he spoke. "I haven't had a chance; why?"

Amy couldn't hear anything on the other side, and even Rex's responses became unclear as she and the others were led away from him and further into the airport, but she heard him mutter about something being 'wonderful' in a manner that put her in mind of the Doctor's attempts to improvise when put on the spot.

_Why do I have a feeling that we're about to get that twist we were looking for…?_

After the assembled TARDIS/Torchwood crew were led further into the airport, Amy was just starting to consider how best to 'signal' Natalie that this might be time for a break-out when Rex ran up to them again, having apparently dropped behind as he took the call.

"Hey, you know, I just remembered there's one final piece of legislation needed to make this a full and proper rendition," the agent said, as he moved in front of the prisoners and began to remove their handcuffs."And according to recent amendments to US code section 3184 and section 3185 on transferring prisoners from airside to landside, the law clearly states that once they touchdown on American soil, they have free and easy access to one very important thing."

"And what's that?" Gwen asked.

"Bullshit," Rex said, before he turned to punch the nearest agent. As their guards looked at Rex in shock, Natalie, Gwen and Jack followed his example to take down some of the other guards, leaving Amy and the Doctor to launch a couple of quick punches at the nearest agents. Lynn lunged towards Rex, having apparently removed her own handcuffs during their walk from the airport, but even as she knocked Rex down, the other agent managed to knock Lynn off her feet, giving her neck a savage twist before she could do more than hit him.

"Got that-" Rex began as he pushed her off him and carefully got to his feet.

"And that is the _last_ time you do something like that while we're working together!" the Doctor glared at the CIA agent.

"Hey, I just saved your lives-" Rex protested as he clutched at his once-again-bleeding chest.

"After endangering them in the first place, so if you really think that wins you _any_ points-" Gwen began.

"And don't you _dare_ start justifying breaking her neck on the grounds that we can't actually 'kill' anyone with the world in its current state," the Doctor practically spat at the other man, almost poking the man with his finger before he stopped himself from making contact with Rex's wound. "If we do this, we're going to operate on the assumption that this situation can be fixed, which means that we do _not_ inflict fatal damage; is that clear?"

"You seriously think you can just go through this without-?"

"Maybe not, but that's no reason not to _try_ ," the Doctor countered. "Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, killing people doesn't _accomplish_ anything in this world; nobody is going to even be _capable_ of dying for the foreseeable future, so trying just causes pointless pain, which I'd think you'd sympathise with considering your condition."

"There are times when-"

"And this isn't one of those times," the Doctor cut Rex off.

"If nothing else, we're in a world where death isn't an option any more, so relying on killing people as a threat just shows you're an idiot," Amy put in, a bitter edge to her own voice as she stared at Rex. "You can deal with the way things are and try and adapt, or just get out of this airport and try and try and survive your own way."

"What makes you think-?"

"You wouldn't have started helping us if things hadn't become _really_ difficult for you," Jack grinned slightly at the other man. "You want our help, you do things the Doctor's way; clear?"

"…Fine," Rex shook his head as he glared at the Doctor. "But you're making this a lot harder-"

"It's already impossible for anyone to die, so it's not exactly like you _can_ kill anybody any more; we're just making sure you don't inflict serious pain on anyone until we can solve this," Amy countered.

"Besides, if anything worth doing was easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile," the Doctor said with a brief smile, before he shook his head with a brief sigh. "Which reminds me, I assume that our luggage hasn't been unloaded from the plane?"

"If they were just… going to kill us…" Rex began uncertainly, "they probably… left all your stuff on board…"

"Right, then I'm off to collect K9; meet you all outside?"

Without waiting for a response, the Doctor ran back down the corridor towards the plane, leaving Amy and Natalie to exchange amused smirks while Jack shrugged at Gwen and Rex in a nonchalant manner.

"He's going off to get that stupid tin dog?" the CIA agent protested.

"That dog is _extremely_ intelligent and could be useful when we're trying to work out what's going on here," Amy countered.

"Besides, we can't exactly leave him here," Jack shrugged. "The TARDIS can be put on lockdown to ensure that nobody gets inside until the Doctor can take it back, and he can probably find it wherever your agency tries to stick it anyway, but if anyone tries to hack K9's databanks, that could get… well, complicated."

"The _box_ is more secure than the _dog_?"

"We'll talk about it later," Jack said, as he indicated the stairs leading up. "Let's just get out of here."

"And what then?" Gwen countered. "US immigration's difficult at the best of times; we're basically stuck-"

"Seriously, will you _idiots_ just cut it out?" Rex interjected, an expression on his face that suggested he was relieved to be in control of the situation again. "You're already landside and one flight of stairs away from the Goddamn baggage claim; you could just walk out of here-"

"You can stop criticising us when you recognise that _you're_ the reason you're in this mess with us, you idiot," Gwen countered bitterly. "Do I need to remind you that since we met, you've broken up my family, separated the Doctor from his equipment, nearly gotten Jack killed, and you're still trying to act as though you're the one who's going to solve everything; why should we go anywhere with you?"

"Because I have a car," Rex countered, before reaching into his jacket and tossing Jack the sonic screwdriver and vortex manipulator. "Here, take your crap."

"Right," Jack nodded, slipping the screwdriver into his pocket and strapping the manipulator to his wrist before he led the group up the stairs onto the baggage claim area. After a few more minutes of walking, the group were mixed in with the rest of the passengers retrieving baggage claim, waving the rest back before he walked up to one of the airport security staff.

"Excuse me, sir?" Jack said politely. "Those men over there in the black suits, I think I overheard them talking about a bomb."

Nodding at Jack's comment, the security team walked up to the approaching CIA agents, leaving Jack to rejoin the others as they headed out of the airport.

"Now aren't you glad I didn't let you bring your kid?" Rex observed to Gwen. "Imagine her here in the middle of all of this. So how about thinking at some point that maybe I did something good?"

"We'll give you that when we're safe," Amy countered, as they moved briskly towards the exit. Walking out of the building, they found two cars right outside the exit, including a small blue Mini and a larger silver car, a young blonde in a blue shirt waiting in the Mini and an older woman in sunglasses and a dark coat getting out of the silver car.

"Perfect timing," Rex said, taking a small baggie of pills from the woman as she walked up to him.

"This had better be worth it," the woman said.

"Nice car," Amy grinned as she opened the rear door and glanced around its interior. "A bit tight, but I think we can make it work-"

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Rex said, indicating the blue Mini behind it. " _This_ is our car; Doctor Juarez just came here to bring me drugs-"

"And there are now seven humanoids and one robot dog needing to get out of here as fast as possible; the thought is appreciated, but we need more space if we're going to make a getaway," the Doctor said as he walked out of the airport with a nonchalant grin, K9 in his arms, before he handed the dog to Natalie. "Just get everything personal out of the car and we'll be off."

"Hey, you can't just-!" the woman began, before the Doctor reached over and placed his fingers on the side of her neck.

"I truly am sorry about this, but it's easier for all concerned if we take the bigger car," he said. "Feel free to report it stolen when you wake up, and we'll leave you all the important things."

Before the woman had time to respond the Doctor had tightened his grip on her neck and she fell down, Gwen quickly moving to catch the other woman before she hit the ground.

"What the _Hell_ was that?" Rex looked between the Doctor and the woman in confusion as Natalie arranged herself to look like she was just holding the other woman up before she moved the woman to a bench on the side of the door. "Some kind of… Vulcan nerve pinch?"

"Venusian aikido; not as good with it as I used to be, but I can pull it off so long as I have a bit of time to get it right," the Doctor smiled, before he indicated the car as Amy pulled various papers, keys, and other items out of the car and put them in the other woman's pockets. "We just lean her against the wall, give her a few minutes to rest and she'll wake up with nothing worse than a stiff neck; we can look into getting a new car once we're out of the airport."

"New car?" the blonde woman looked in confusion between the group as she got out of the Mini. "Look, I came here to-"

"And we appreciate it, but I think you have to agree you don't have the space for all of us in that one, so let's just get on with things here," the Doctor said as he got into the driving seat of the new car, Gwen and Amy climbing into the back as Jack took the front passenger seat, while Natalie emptied out the boot and climbed into the back with K9. "Are you two coming, or not?"

"You can't just- I'm not-!" the blonde began.

"If you're here, I take it you're not going to kill us, which means you're likely to be in trouble if anyone finds out what you did here, so you should probably come with us," the Doctor said, smiling encouragingly at the girl before he glanced over at Rex. "And you should probably do the same; you _did_ just punch out your colleagues, after all."

"Hey, who put you in charge-?" Rex tried to protest.

"He's the Doctor; when Earth faces an out-of-the-ordinary threat, he's _always_ in charge," Jack grinned over at Rex before he tossed the sonic screwdriver back to the Doctor and indicated the rear seat to Rex. "If you want to basically get killed by whoever's after us, stick around here; otherwise, come with us and let's get going."

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Rex climbed into the back seat of the car, forced to squat uncomfortably on the edge of the seat as Esther got in the other side, leaving Amy and Gwen to squash up in the middle.

"We're going to need better escape plans in the future," Jack observed as the Doctor began to drive, only to slam on the brakes as Lynn walked towards them, head pointing backwards as she staggered around and tried to glare at them.

"Jesus," Rex stared at the woman. "All right, just drive; _drive_!"

"Already on it," the Doctor said, manoeuvring the car around Lyn as he headed onto the main road, Lynn falling to the ground as the other agents ran from the airport to examine her.

"What the hell was that?" the blonde protested. "Was that Lyn? What the hell is going on?"

"Welcome to life with the Doctor," Amy shrugged.

"The Doctor?"

"That's me," the Doctor waved politely at the blonde. "And you are?"

"…Esther Drummond?" the woman said uncertainly.

"Good to meet you, Esther Drummond," the Doctor nodded at her in the mirror even as he continued driving.

"I take it the TARDIS is safe?" Amy asked.

"The door has been double-locked and I've got the TVG right here; nobody's going to break into the old girlany time soon, and all they'll get is an indestructible police box even if they do," the Doctor affirmed as he patted his coat pocket. "It's not ideal, but we don't have time to move her anywhere until we know what's going on or where might be safe… and on that topic, assuming that you've been keeping an eye on things on the ground while we've been stuck in the sky, how's the world reacting to this?"

"And what are you and Rex doing on the run anyway?" Gwen glanced at the blonde. "I mean, no offence, but who _are_ you?"

"My analyst," Rex clarified.

"And as for why I'm here," Esther said tentatively, "well… I found evidence that money had been sent to our bank accounts, and I was able to trace enough to work out that somebody on the inside was setting us up before they got rid of us to keep all information on Torchwood classified."

"No time to find someone you could trust, I take it?" Natalie asked.

"When our direct supervisor was clearly in on it?" Esther shook her head. "I managed to steal a colleague's ID and get out before they could trap me somewhere, and… well, here we are."

"Good for you, Esther," the Doctor nodded. "Always tough to improvise in a dangerous spot; we're going to need that kind of nerve… and on that topic-"

"Once again, who the _Hell_ put you-?" Rex began.

"As I just said, he's the Doctor and Earth's in danger; by definition, he's the one in charge," Jack nodded.

"And none of _us_ are going to take cues from you when we've got the Doctor here, so if you think you can pull your weight and take over you've got another thing coming," Amy affirmed.

"Welcome to the glamorous life of a fugitive, Agent Matheson," Natalie grinned mockingly at Rex. "Give yourself time and you'll get used to it; if you want to survive what's happening here, just follow our lead."

"So," the Doctor looked at Esther, "if you've been on the ground for the last few hours while we've been in the air, what have you got to tell us about how humanity's reacting to the loss of death so far?"

"It's been… complicated," Esther sighed. "I mean, on the one hand, we've got a Hutu village where everyone was crushed and buried alive, but then India are announcing plans to reconcile with Pakistan to make the most of their one life… there's just no way to _guarantee_ how anyone's going to react to anything right now…"

"Well, it's not like any of us were _expecting_ to become immortal," Gwen pointed out in exasperation. "We've already got enough of a population problem without this mess; what's going to happen when we're left with a population that's _only_ growing without any way to mitigate the consequences of it?"

"And that's not taking into account the wider issues," the Doctor added. "I mean, from what we've heard about how this kind of immortality works, people can still get hurt in this state, and the only thing that's actually changed is that nobody can _die_ of their injuries, correct?"

"Yeah…" Esther nodded tentatively, before she shook her head bitterly. "And then we get crap like Oswald Danes's loophole…"

"Who?" Amy asked.

"Oswald Danes?" Rex looked incredulously over at the young redhead. "You don't know-?"

"Never heard of him," Amy affirmed. "We've been… busy; who is he?"

"…He was a teacher, until he killed one of his students a few years ago," Gwen explained solemnly, her face twisting at the uncomfortable memory. "When his case went to trial, he only said that his victim… should have run faster."

"And… how old was his victim?" Natalie asked.

"Twelve."

"OK; _that_ is sick."

"And what does he have to do with the current situation?" the Doctor asked as he turned around a corner.

"Oswald Danes was meant to be executed at pretty much the moment when the Miracle started to affect things," Esther explained. "After his execution failed, he was able to use some warped legal argument to get himself released on the grounds that he couldn't be tried and convicted for the same crime twice and he'd be a victim of cruel and unusual punishment if they tried to do anything else to him after his execution didn't work out…"

"And there lies the problem," the Doctor noted. "I'm not a _fan_ of the death penalty per se, but society as a whole needs death as an option for so many things that we would otherwise take for granted; I take it Danes is doing more than just enjoying his freedom if you're bringing him up as an example of the problems?"

"He made an appearance on live TV to talk about the implications of the current situation and claim that he was 'sorry' about everything he'd done," Esther said, a bitter edge to her voice. "I'm not sure how many people believe it and how many were just going along with it, but either way… just because he can't kill anyone now doesn't mean he should just be… allowed out."

"We need to get somewhere safe and work out our next move before we start having these kind of debates," the Doctor said, a bitter edge in his voice. "Humanity makes its biggest mistakes when they're scared and desperate; we need to be ready for anything, especially when we don't know where to look to answer any of the big questions right now."

"Which are?" Rex asked.

"Who/what, how, and _why_ …?"


	6. Contacting Old Friends

Studying the assembled notes he'd made of the situation, the Doctor still wasn't sure what they were exactly dealing with at this point.

Getting away from the airport hadn't been too difficult, although the Doctor was prepared to bet that had been because of the advantage that nobody was expecting Esther to do anything to disrupt the plans of whoever had turned the CIA against her and Rex. Rex had explained that the woman who'd met them at the airport was Doctor Vera Juarez, who had apparently treated him for his injuries immediately after the accident that had left him injured, as well as being the one he'd talked to when treating Jack's poisoning, and it turned out she'd been recruited for a medical board to discuss the response to the Miracle. When Amy had been clearing out Doctor Juarez's personal effects from the car, she'd taken a quick look at some of the woman's papers from that meeting. Fortunately, speed reading had been one of the techniques the Doctor had taught her for cases where they had little time to take in important information, which had included details like that humans were apparently the only species that had been affected by the Miracle and how analysis of severed limbs confirmed that humanity still seemed to be aging even if they couldn't die any more. Amy had noted a few speculative notes about how the healthcare system would have to adapt to cope with the current situation, but there was nothing to confirm how they were going to actually deal with humanity's new 'immortality' long-term.

The Doctor had a few speculations of his own about how this immortality would affect diseases and germs on a long-term basis, but he'd waited to consider the situation in more detail until they'd abandoned Vera's car after finding a second-hand car place with a few SUVs on display. The Doctor had managed to withdraw a few thousand pounds from his old accounts, grateful that he'd left the accounts open even after he and Amy had moved on from Leadworth, that allowed them to buy a suitably-sized car straight away while Rex used his own experience to convince the salesman to skip most of the paperwork. They'd eventually managed to make their way to an old American safehouse Jack had arranged during some past mission for Torchwood, and the Doctor and Esther had set up a couple of laptops to carry out more research. In the meantime, Amy had gone with Rex in the car to have a talk with the man who seemed to be behind sabotaging Rex's contacts in the CIA, and Gwen and Natalie had gone out to try and find food, leaving Jack to work on helping them connect K9 to the network to run the proper search.

"You're sure that's… safe?" Esther looked uncertainly at K9 even as she kept tapping at her keyboard. "I mean, couldn't this… I mean, I've seen the _Terminator_ movies…"

"K9 is _nothing_ like Skynet, I promise, Esther," the Doctor smiled at the young woman as Jack connected the next set of cables to K9's side. "This is just to help him carry out a more detailed search; we're not going to have any kind of artificial intelligence coups on top of everything else."

"On that topic, nothing against K9, but why are we adapting him like this?" Jack asked as he stepped back from the robot dog. "Didn't you mention having an independent friend with an advanced computer back home?"

"True, but Sarah's likely got other things to deal with, and at this point it's probably best to let someone else stay available in case Earth has… other matters to worry about while we're busy tackling this mess," the Doctor said, before he turned his focus back to the computer screens. "Anyway, it doesn't look like we're going to have much luck doing things this way; the most obvious approach was morphic fields suspending the human race, but that turns up too many options and no definite way to narrow it down right now."

"And it's got to be more than that, anyway," Jack observed. "I mean, we all saw that woman back at the airport; even if the broken neck didn't kill her, she should have been paralysed in that state, but she couldn't even be unconscious."

"True," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "It's as though something is _making_ people stay alive, like that man you mentioned who was still conscious even after he blew himself up… actually, did Agent Matheson say if he ever lost consciousness during his accident?"

* * *

The moment Rex held his gun against the fat man's head, Amy knew that this had been a bad idea. She'd come along with the man because she didn't think it was a good idea for any of them to be on their own right now, and it wasn't like she had much of a life to get 'compromised' when she was travelling with the Doctor, but she didn't want to see her new ally shoot someone in the head.  
  
"Who told you to set me up?" her new CIA acquaintance said as he glared at the other man, who was wearing a dressing-gown and urgently pleading for Rex to put the gun down. "Because everywhere I turn the whole CIA has been poisoned against me, by you. Now who told you to do it?"  
  
"I don't-" the fat man began.  
  
"I would _really_ recommend you not try to tell us you don't know what he's talking about," Amy cut the man off with a cool glare, hoping that following the Doctor's example would be enough to make up for the fact that she was so young. "If nothing else, it's insulting to all of us to think that we don't know you'd be lying anyway."  
  
"Wh-who-?"  
  
"My name is not important," Amy cut the fat man off (that was suitably dramatic, right?). "What _is_ important is that this man spent some time on the way over here wondering just what would happen if he shot you in the head in a world where it's literally impossible for you to die of anything, so maybe start talking unless you want a bullet lodged in the part of your brain that's responsible for bladder control?"  
  
Amy didn't like even pretending to be this ruthless, but hopefully she wouldn't have to actually be this ruthless and let Rex do it. She didn't believe that Rex Matheson was a bad person, but it was becoming increasingly clear that he was set in his way of doing things and didn't fully appreciate the scale of what they were dealing with right now.  
  
"I-I don't know who they are," Friedkin protested as Rex held the gun against his head, sobbing in an embarrassing manner. "I never did. They just, they just paid me over the years. They've been there for decades and I can't- couldn't stop them; I mean, it's too late. Look, they-they've only ever contacted me on one telephone number."  
  
"Which is?" Amy asked, as she glanced at her watch. Based on the Doctor's stories about his own experience dealing with more conventional law enforcement during larger problems, she was fairly sure that they would have some time before anyone responded to whatever alarms had been tripped when they broke in, but they still couldn't afford to wait too long…  
  
"Th-they only contact me," Friedkin said, pulling out a red flip-phone and passing it to Amy. "They contact me through that. But listen, Rex, you won't find them. I never did. They're everywhere. They know everything."  
  
"They don't know _everything_ ," Amy said firmly, glaring at the man in contempt. "For one thing, they don't know who they're up against _now_."  
  
"And right now," Rex said bitterly, "you should just worry about going deaf."  
  
Amy didn't have time to protest before Rex had fired the gun just beside the fat man's ear, leaving Friedkin screaming in pain as Rex ran from the house and back to the car.  
  
Right now, they had managed to retrieve their first potential lead on whoever was behind this mess, so at least they had come away with more than they'd had at the start. As she pocketed the phone, Amy made a note to have a talk with the Doctor once they got home and hope that they could get Rex to 'calm down' before he did anything they'd all regret…

* * *

"We got it," Rex said, waving the phone as he walked back into their small 'base'. "The phone Friedkin was using to talk with whoever paid him off."  
  
"Nice job," the Doctor nodded at Rex before he glanced over at Amy. "Did it go well?"  
  
"Apart from one thing," Amy said, slapping Rex sharply on the left ear, nodding in satisfaction as he winced and clutched his head. " _Don't_ do that again."  
  
"What-?" Rex looked at her.  
  
"I didn't say anything at the time because the priority was to get away, but I thought the Doctor made it clear that we don't shoot people?"  
  
"I didn't _shoot_ him-!"  
  
"No, you just fired off your gun beside the man's ear and left him temporarily deaf," Amy clarified. "I could tolerate you knocking him out so he doesn't raise the alarm until we've gotten away, but what you did was pointless temporary torture."  
  
"She's right." The Doctor stood up, looking coolly at the CIA agent. "Like I told you at the airport, you do things our way or-"  
  
"And who said I was taking orders from-?" Rex began.  
  
"Because we _all_ are," Jack interrupted, looking at Rex in the cold, direct tone that reinforced just what Jack could become if he dropped the flirtatious teasing. "Like I said earlier, he's the Doctor; he's the best there is at what he does, and what he does is save the world."  
  
"This guy?" Rex waved a hand at the Doctor. "He's barely graduated-"  
  
"I'm older than I look," the Doctor cut Rex off, arms folded to stare coolly at the CIA agent with the kind of intense stare that reinforced his great age. "You can doubt me if you want, Agent Rex Matheson, but we've already established that basically every bridge you had in the CIA has been burnt, and we're dealing with a situation that you have no experience with."  
  
"And you do?"  
  
"I've been dealing with everything from a madman in the attic to a pan-dimensional being trying to remake existence, and I'm still here," the Doctor countered. "I will admit that I'm not used to something that makes the human race the most useless kind of immortal I've ever encountered, but give me time and whoever's behind this _will_ regret they messed with the human race."  
  
"…Who are you?" Rex looked at the Doctor.  
  
"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied. "That's all you need to know right now."  
  
"Uh, guys?" Esther raised an awkward hand. "Not meaning to interrupt… this, but I've been trying to track Friedkin's online activity from my old link to the CIA network, and I'm hitting a vine when I try to trace that number."  
  
"A vine?" Amy asked.  
  
"A vine is when you trace a number back but the trail branches out, then it branches out again and again," Rex explained, apparently grateful to be back on a topic that he knew something about.  
  
"Piggyback those secondary numbers spreading out almost exponentially. So instead of tracing one number you're chasing five hundred thousand."  
  
"In other words, we're not likely to get anything _that_ way," Jack shook his head before he looked at the Doctor. "Unless K9-?"  
  
"Negative," K9 cut in. "I am not designed to interface with the telephone network in that manner, and we must assume that our opposition retain the ability to track such searches."  
  
"Worth checking, anyway," the former immortal shrugged.  
  
"What's worth checking?" Gwen asked as she and Natalie walked into the room.  
  
"A lead that won't work out," Amy said as she took a bag from the blonde solider.  
  
"Anything from Rhys?" the Welsh woman asked.  
  
"Computer records confirm that Rhys Williams and Anwen Williams have been moved to an undisclosed safehouse in the custody of Sergeant Andrew Davidson," K9 put in. "No contact details have been provided, but last reports indicated that all concerned parties were safe and secure."  
  
"Right, well, no offence, doggie, but that's my family, so hurry it up and find a contact, OK?" Gwen said, before she turned back to the shopping bags and began to distribute their contents. "Right then, here we go; brand new mobiles for everyone, courtesy of Jack and the Doctor. You're sure that's all right? I mean, is there enough in the accounts?"  
  
"The Doctor and I have good eyes for investments; we'll be fine," Jack nodded reassuringly at her.  
  
"Food was a bit more of a problem," Natalie said apologetically, holding up her own bags. "With people panicking about the Miracle, we had to grab snacks at the… gas station, I think is the term over here?"  
  
"It should keep us going for the moment," the Doctor smiled at his daughter.  
  
"It's getting bloody mental out there," Gwen shook her head in exasperation. "Like Natalie said, some TV show said that the Miracle was a virus, and then some website said it was the plague, so they all run to the shops and they clear the shelves. Oh, and there's this new cult out on the street, call themselves the Soulless."  
  
"Soulless?" the Doctor repeated.  
  
"These guys," Gwen said, passing the Time Lord a white mask with a downturned black mouth and dark eyes with a tear coming from the left eye. "Apparently, everlasting life has robbed mankind of their souls."  
  
" _Humans_ ," the Doctor shook his head in exasperation as he tossed the mask to one side, even as he gave a brief smile at Gwen.  
  
"Oh, and they're out of painkillers," Gwen added, shooting a brief glare over at Rex. "So sorry, but you're just going to have to keep dealing on your own."  
  
"Maybe that Danes git had a good point…" Rex muttered as he sat down in a corner of the room.  
  
"Danes?" Amy asked. "That guy talking about free drugs on the radio?"  
  
"You're seriously considering that Oswald Danes had a point?" Esther looked at Rex with new incredulity.  
  
"For those of us who weren't staying up-to-date with the news, who is Oswald Danes?" Natalie asked.  
  
"Convicted murderer and paedophile sentenced to death on Miracle Day," Rex said with a bitter edge.  
  
"Ah," Amy said.  
  
"In other words, not a very nice man?" Natalie asked.  
  
"When he was asked about his victim, he said that she just didn't run fast enough," Esther responded with a bitter edge.  
  
"…That is _sick_ ," Natalie said, her expression twisting with the kind of cold contempt the Doctor had never seen from her before.  
  
"Could you clarify what this Danes chap has to do with anything?" the Doctor looked curiously at Rex.  
  
"Before I left to get you all he'd managed to get himself released from prison by using some screwed up argument that keeping him locked up after he'd endured lethal injection was a violation of his rights not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment or something psycho like that."  
  
"Which translates to him becoming a media personality?" Amy looked at Rex in surprise.  
  
"Humanity loves controversy," Jack observed solemnly. "There's a reason Hitler and Mandela made such an interesting impression."  
  
"You're seriously comparing _Hitler_ to _Nelson Mandela_?" Amy looked incredulously at Jack.  
  
"Or comparing either of them to this guy?" Gwen added. "They were basically arrested for making a political stand; even Hitler didn't actually _rape_ anyone-!"  
  
"Hey, I didn't like Hitler any more than anyone else, and I'm definitely _not_ implying that Mandela's crimes can be compared to what Danes did, but you have to admit that them both going from convicted criminal to head of their respective governments is impressive," Jack countered. "Point is that there's precedent; we like to believe that the prison system makes an impression, even if it doesn't always work out."  
  
"Even for a child-killing rapist?" Gwen looked at Jack in disgust.  
  
"I said the principle had precedent, I never said I agreed with it in this case," Jack corrected, even as he looked apologetically at Gwen. "The point is that we want to believe prison can change people; it's just that some people can't be changed."  
  
"Well, whatever your views on prisons reforming people, Danes has certainly been milking the attention," Esther put in. "Some of his TV appearances made for an interesting few debates back in the office before everything started to go against us; he started crying about his victim at one point, and people were actually polarised on whether he was being sincere or not."  
  
"Interesting," the Doctor mused. "Well, as unpleasant as the man might be, he does present us with another avenue of investigation to consider…"  
  
"You think it's worth talking to Danes?" Rex asked.  
  
"Considering he seems to be the 'face' of the Miracle, it's worth thinking about at least, but we should also look into who else might be profiting from this. Danes's execution occurring at the right moment could just be a coincidence that someone's decided to use, but there have to be other people who are getting some kind of benefit from this situation…"  
  
"Tracing the money, huh?" Rex smiled slightly at the Doctor. "Could work…"  
  
"So glad it meets with your approval," Amy muttered as she glared briefly at the agent.  
  
"And that reminds me," the Doctor said, taking one of the phones and standing up from his laptop, "I have a call to make to an old friend; just give me a moment."  
  
"You're 'calling an old friend' at a time like this?" Rex glared at the Doctor even as the Time Lord took out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the back of the phone. "We're trying to be discreet-"  
  
"And I am calling a secure line on an equally-secure phone to talk to a man who has important connections with the United Nations and experience in dealing with the bizarre," the Doctor interrupted. Not giving Rex time to respond, he walked out of the apartment and headed up the stairs to the building roof, doing some quick modifications with his sonic screwdriver. The phone line itself should be secure, but a part of him didn't feel like making this call in front of Rex Matheson just yet…  
  
" _Doctor_?"  
  
"Brigadier?" the Doctor smiled in response. "Should I ask how you knew?"  
  
" _A call from an unknown number to my secure personal line during a truly unconventional social upheaval; who else would it be_?" Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart replied with a warm smile clear even in his voice. " _Although I will confess to some curiosity about why you chose to call rather than visit_ …"  
  
"I'm currently stuck in America and the TARDIS has been confiscated by the CIA."  
  
" _I had heard reports, but I wasn't sure of their accuracy_ ," the Brigadier mused regretfully. " _Not Control, I assume_?"  
  
"I considered that, but he would have done _something_ to let me know that he had the old girl by now if he was part of this," the Doctor confirmed. "Anyway, I'm doing what I can to investigate the situation, but I wanted to check with you to see if UNIT had anything I should know about?"  
  
" _Fortunately for you, my consultant status has been reactivated already, Doctor_ ," the Brigadier said, with that warm exasperation he always seemed to assume when the Doctor's more stubborn incarnations acted as though he was still an active member of UNIT (in hindsight, the Doctor sometimes worried if he'd pushed the Brigadier too far during that mess with the Fourth Reich when he'd been wearing that terrible coat). " _Unfortunately, I don't have any obvious answers for you yet; our scientists are analysing what we can, but there is nothing to indicate what could have caused such a massive change, or any indication of how to undo it_."  
  
"I take it that means UNIT scientists have also noted the reports of how the immortal are still aging?"  
  
" _Among other things_ ," the Brigadier confirmed. " _There is some speculation that cancer has ceased to be an issue, which would at least be some kind of good news, but to date we haven't found any test subjects willing to volunteer for those experiments_."  
  
"Quite," the Doctor mused. "Anyway, getting back to the immediate issue, is it worth asking for help over here, or would that be pushing my luck?"  
  
" _Pushing your luck_ ," the Brigadier said grimly. " _I was keeping an eye out for reports of your presence as soon as the Miracle was reported, but when it was announced that you had been extradited by the CIA… well, as you recall from our past dealings with them, the political situation is a delicate matter_."  
  
"I understood that when neither of you could admit that aliens were real, but how does that apply to this?"  
  
" _Because it would mean admitting that_ you're _real, Doctor_."  
  
"Ah," the Doctor nodded in new understanding. "Ask UNIT to step in and demand that I be returned to you and that raises all kinds of questions about why I was arrested in the first place?"  
  
" _If we had managed to get to you first, it might have been possible to put you in a position to coordinate our response to the situation, but as it stands… well, this is a bit trickier_ ," the Brigadier explained. " _I'll see what I can do to keep you informed if we find anything useful, but for the moment, you should consider yourself on your own_."  
  
"Understood," the Doctor replied with a brief smile. "For what it's worth, I've got a few leads already; it just would have been good to have some other assets available."  
  
" _I assume I can call you back on this number if I hear anything useful_?"  
  
"And I'll do the same," the Doctor responded, before he ended the call.  
  
It was a pity that the Brigadier hadn't been able to offer more help, but his old friend had made it clear that he'd be available if he was needed, which at least gave them a potential ally to call on.  
  
Of course, that just made it more important for the Doctor to confirm who and what they were up against so that it would be easier to justify UNIT's more active involvement. This might be an unusual situation, but UNIT's remit had become a bit narrower since the days when they could get called in on nothing more than unusual events at a nuclear facility; without any idea of the cause or any theory as to a possible solution, certain parties could argue this was nothing more than a really bizarre twist in human evolution…


	7. The Reason for the Leader

Gwen wasn't sure what she had expected when she thought about the possibility of working with the Doctor Jack had told her so much about, but she had to concede that the current situation was probably unprecedented even by the Doctor's unconventional standards. Back when Torchwood had still been active, she'd had some idle thoughts about the possibility of the Doctor dropping into help out during the latest alien invasion, but after that shit with the 456…

She could speculate on why the Doctor hadn't shown up for that event, but she wasn't sure she even wanted to ask; it was possible that the 456 had somehow been keeping him away like Jack suggested, but if he'd just chosen not to help… she might understand _why_ he would have chosen not to help, but that didn't make it easier to think about it.

 _God, I miss Ianto right now_.

So far Esther Drummond seemed friendly enough, and Amy Pond and Natalie Kriener were at least willing to help even if she got the impression they weren't used to this kind of purely research role, but that didn't make it any easier to think about her lost friend. It was irrational to think about how Ianto would have survived the 456's attack if this Miracle had happened earlier- the image of what would have happened to the children if they'd been taken in this state was far from encouraging- but it was still hard to be back in the thick of things with so many unfamiliar faces…

"What the hell are you doing?" Rex glared at Esther, breaking into Gwen's thoughts.

"Just putting my numbers in," Esther responded.

"Whose numbers?" Rex glared.

"My sister's."

"You're gonna phone your sister?"

"No, I-" Esther began.

"Esther, what the hell is the matter with you?" Rex looked incredulously at her. "Don't you know how serious this is? The CIA is gonna be monitoring her calls-"

"Lay off it, Rex; she's not used to this, OK?" Amy cut in.

"Well, I'm not used to this either-" Rex began.

"Get over it, Rex," Gwen glared at the CIA agent. "Like Amy said, Esther's not exactly trained for this."

The former Cardiff police officer appreciated that the man was here to help them, but if he couldn't get off his high horse and stop acting like he was the one who could handle everything, she was going to hit him. Rex might make a good point about Anwen wouldn't be safe here, but it wasn't like she wanted to have it rubbed in her face that she was separated from her daughter, and the idea that he was in pain from his injury didn't excuse everything…

"That's _enough_!" Jack said, as Rex began to make a comment about how at least he wasn't stupid.

"And who put you-?"

"I repeat, the _Doctor_ is in charge," Jack cut the CIA agent off.

"And what makes this man qualified-?" Rex began.

"Because I have faced threats you'll never imagine, Rex Matheson," the Doctor said firmly. "We've already established that you're completely out of your depth when dealing with anything you can't just shoot, so maybe stop criticising someone who's _also_ out of her depth and focus on trying to help us?"

"I _can_ do this," Esther said, looking resolutely at Rex. "It's just… you know I've never done anything like this before; you've got field experience, I sit at my desk and read blogs for a living. I know that we have to take care, Rex, but it's my sister; she's just… she's not well."

"It's irrel-" Rex began.

"Nothing and nobody is irrelevant," the Doctor cut him off, before he turned back to Esther. "That said, we've got a few more immediate priorities right now, so how have you come along trying to trace Friekdin's money?"

"I couldn't trace the bribes themselves, but I'm going through Friedkin's patterns of behaviour instead," Esther replied.

"He's a Section Chief," Rex said dismissively. "You're not getting into those files."

"You want to bet?" Esther smiled, clearly glad to be back on a topic she had more confidence in. "This Torchwood software, it's serious."

"Thank Tosh for that," Gwen put in. "She… she really knew her stuff."

"Tosh?" Natalie asked.

"Toshiko Sato," Gwen replied, a sad smile on her face. "She… she got killed during an attack on Cardiff a few years ago."

"Oh… sorry," Natalie shook her head.

"You weren't to know," Gwen said reassuringly. "So how's it going?"

"Well…" Esther looked uncertainly at the screen. "I can't be certain, but it _looks_ like he's been trying to block the ATF from looking into a particular warehouse in Washington."

"How did he do that?" Amy asked.

"The ATF asked the CIA for information and Friedkin forwarded the request onto ancillary three times, which basically means it's lost in the system."

"Which means that we might have a lead?" Natalie asked. "I mean, he wouldn't stop people looking at that warehouse if there was nothing in it, right?"

"So," Jack smiled, "who deals with the warehouse and who follows up the phone?"

"K9 can handle the phone," the Doctor smiled before he looked around the room. "Right then, the warehouse team needs to be able to get inside and search it quickly, so Rex, Esther and Natalie can accompany me while Jack, Amy and Gwen stay here to make sure K9 isn't interrupted while he's running his search."

"And why do _you_ get to come along?" Rex asked.

"Because if there's anything in that warehouse that has something to do with the Miracle, the Doctor's the best person to work out what it is," Jack smiled.

"Right, and I'm meant to buy that?"

"Excuse me?" the Doctor and Jack glared at the agent.

"I mean, seriously, the self-proclaimed captain who screwed up and got most of his team killed defaults to letting the idiot kid in tweed take charge?" Rex looked sceptically between the two. "How much of this is just because you're letting the kid save you from having to make the bad calls?"

"The Doctor _does_ know what he's doing-" Amy insisted.

"Yeah, like I'll believe the little girl he's probably been grooming for-"

" _Grooming_?" Amy spat indignantly, her mind flashing back to the more unpleasant implications of that particular term. "I've spent the last few years of my life _training_ with the Doctor; I'm not his-!"

"So you think I'm not cut out for this job, Agent Rex Matheson?" the Doctor cut Amy off, standing up to glare at the agent. "And you think that _you_ are through your experience dealing with… remind me, what do the CIA handle? Crime lords, drug smugglers, terrorists?"

"That kind of thing, yeah-"

"Whereas _I_ have faced the son of Adolf Hitler and the Fourth Reich he'd tried to assemble since he was smuggled away by his father's remaining followers," the Doctor countered. "I have faced the man known as the Butcher of Brisbane, who was responsible for over a hundred thousand deaths in the name of his own immortality. I've confronted psychopathic warriors who are convinced that their actions are justified in the name of their own victory even when that includes destroying entire planets. I've faced an utter madman who concluded that the only way to win his peoples' centuries-long war was to turn them into the most ruthless race of psychopaths in existence and unleashed the most evil race in all of creation. I've even met a woman who was so utterly consumed with her own self-importance that she ended up destroying entire _planets_ just to ensure her _own_ survival."

"Planets?" Esther repeated uncertainly.

"Planets," the Doctor confirmed. "She used the energy she got from their destruction to sustain the equipment she needed to keep herself alive, and didn't even care if some of them were inhabited."

"You're kidding me, right?" Rex said, looking at the Doctor as though he had even further doubts about the Time Lord's sanity. "I'm expected to believe that-"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm lying, Agent Matheson," the Doctor said firmly, walking up to stand directly in front of the other man. "You must have experience of dealing with criminals and madmen in your profession, so look me in the eyes and tell me that I'm just some nut with delusions if you can."

Marching up to the Doctor, Rex glared at the Time Lord directly in the eyes, but the Doctor simply stared coolly back at the CIA agent, raising a mocking eyebrow at the other man. Rex tried to give the appearance of being the one in charge, but the Doctor simply stared coolly back at the other man, an intensity in his gaze that even made the Doctor's companions feel uncomfortable.

"I am the Doctor, Agent Rex Matheson," the Doctor said as Agent Matheson blinked uncertainly at the other man. "I've been dealing with the strange and unusual since I left a London junkyard in 1963, have seen things that you could never understand and faced nightmares that would make you wake up screaming every night for the rest of your life, have lost things you could never understand, walked in worlds where everything you think you know has been turned upside down… and despite how I look, I am far older than virtually anyone else you have met, and I assure you that I will do _everything_ in my power to find out what caused this 'Miracle' and put it back to normal."

In response, Rex stared silently at the Doctor for a few moments, until he finally nodded in grim acceptance.

"All right," he said uncertainly. "I'll… give you a shot, anyway."

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded at Rex, before he reached out and poked his finger sharply in Rex's wound.

" _Fuck_!" Rex yelled, clutching at his bleeding chest.

"And _that_ was for implying I've been 'grooming' Amelia Pond to be anything other than the best Amelia Pond she can be," the Doctor said, his expression now even colder. "She is my friend and my student, but she is _not_ someone I have been 'grooming' for any purpose; is that understood?"

"Gotcha," Rex said, still wincing as he held his chest.

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded, before he turned to smile around at the room. "So, we have a lead; let's check out that warehouse, shall we?"


	8. Meeting the Monster

Amy glanced over at the Doctor as they sat around the apartment, Natalie still resting against the door while Rex rested in one of the side rooms and Esther and Gwen had taken a break in another. After their attempt to pass on information to one of Rex's old CIA contacts had failed, Jack had left to spend a night on the town to give himself a break, while K9 had managed to hack communication networks to let Gwen talk with her husband and daughter before they all called it a night. The group as a whole had woken up a short while ago, but after a quick breakfast (during which Gwen had seemed particularly solemn about something), they had soon found themselves with nothing better to do than sit around and go over what they had gathered so far.

"Do you get the impression we're just spinning our wheels at this point?" Amy asked her mentor after a few moments of awkward silence.

"In what way?"

"In the sense that we've dug up this whole thing about a medical company stockpiling drugs in advance of the Miracle and we don't have anyone we can actually pass it on to after our American contact's best option didn't work out?"

"Right," Rex muttered as he looked bitterly over at the Time Lord and the young woman. "Like it's _my_ fault that the guy's bought into the crap we're being accused of-"

"Did any of us _say_ we were blaming you for that?" Amy cut Rex off with an exasperated glare at the CIA agent. "Look, we're doing our best here while dealing with a _really_ weird situation; can you just stop acting like you could have done better if we weren't the ones calling the shots?"

"I never said-"

"You were thinking it," the Doctor pointed firmly at him, before he leant back in the chair and sighed. "I'm not sure which of us has it worse; your contacts don't believe you, and mine can't do anything because we don't have clear evidence of the unusual."

"Clear evidence of the unusual?" Rex repeated. "Like everyone being unable to die _isn't_ unusual?"

"Let's just say that things are extremely complicated and I don't know if you're ready to hear just how bad it could be until I know for sure what we're up against," the Doctor observed, looking at Rex with a teasing smile before his expression became more serious. "All that you need to know is that my contacts can do anything to help us until I can give them a clear target-"

" _Now_ you're OK with shooting people-?"

"'Target' doesn't necessarily have to mean 'kill', Agent Matheson-"

" _The point_ ," Gwen cut in, glaring between the Doctor and Rex before she focused on the American agent, "is that we have a name to dig into right now, which is at least more than we had before. K9 and Esther can do a bit of research to work out where we could find anything more about PhiCorp, and in the meantime… well, there has to be something we could pull off, right?"

"…Doctor Juarez," the agent said after a brief silence.

"The woman you met at the airport?" Natalie asked.

"I've still got her card," Rex said, his expression tentative as he looked around at the others. "From what she said during our last talk, she was… taking part in some medical research conferences to work out how we could deal with this shit as a society. If we can meet with her, maybe we can… get her point of view on things?"

"It can't hurt," the Doctor nodded at Rex with a slight smile. "While Esther and K9 run a search on PhiCorp, maybe you could set up a meeting with Doctor Juarez?"

"Hold on; me and the dog?" Esther looked at the Doctor in surprise. "You're serious?"

"Affirmative, Mistress Esther," K9 put in with a pleased tone to his voice. "You have demonstrated exceptional computer skills for a human; your assistance would be most appreciated."

"Well… thanks," Esther smiled at K9 as she turned her attention back to the computer. Looking over at the other woman, Natalie decided that she liked Esther's attitude. The young woman might have expressed doubts about how she was coping with this situation, even briefly wondering if she should just go back to her apartment so that she wasn't holding anyone else back, but she had decided to stick it out after Gwen had pointed out that leaving right now would only prove Rex right.

 _Got to hand it to that guy; he's been a pain in the neck, but that makes it a_ lot _easier for us to come together_.

"So how do we do this?" Esther grinned over at K9 as she turned back to sit directly in front of the computer. "I'll take company history and you handle its European operations?"

"Affirmative, Mistress Esther."

"I take it these phones you've all been working on can call Doctor Juarez without being tracked, right?" Matheson looked at K9.

"Affirmative, Agent Matheson."

"OK, _she_ gets 'Mistress' and I get 'Agent'?" Rex looked over at the Doctor, actually coming across as somewhat hurt by that detail.

"The difference is that K9 and I like Esther Drummond," the Doctor looked pointedly at Rex. "You're here because I don't believe that you deserve to be left behind to die because I don't like you; there's a difference."

"Oh, thanks," Esther smiled over at the Doctor, before shrugging awkwardly at Rex and turning her attention back to the computer. Rex looked as though he was about to say something, but finally just shook his head and walked off to a corner of the room, muttering something about having to make a phone call.

* * *

Sitting opposite the young man who had walked into her house and introduced himself as 'the Doctor', Doctor Vera Juarez had no idea why she was listening to this man's story. Agent Matheson might have vouched for him, but the way he'd said it suggested that he didn't exactly like the young man, and Vera couldn't shake the feeling that he looked more like he should still be an attending physician or some kind of student rather than an actual doctor.  
  
On the other hand, there was something in the young man's eyes that made her think that she should show him more respect than she would for anyone else his age…  
  
"So… you've been treating Agent Matheson?" she asked, still wondering at how she had reached the point where she was so casual about letting strange men sit around her apartment.  
  
"More like making sure he doesn't put too much stress on that wound of his, but yes," the Doctor nodded. "Anyway, I'm not _that_ sort of doctor full-time; I'm more of a general scientist rather than a medical specialist."  
  
"But you know enough to get by?"  
  
"I do what I can," the Doctor said, before he shrugged and looked at her with a new intensity. "But that's not relevant right now; what is relevant is that we need your help."  
  
"How?"  
  
"We're… looking in the Miracle."  
  
"Everyone is-" Vera began.  
  
"Not in the sense of people looking into how to deal with it, but in the sense that we're looking into finding out what caused it in the first place." Something in the Doctor's manner suggested that he was thinking beyond that, but wasn't willing to say anything he couldn't commit to.  
  
"What _caused_ it?" Vera looked at the nameless doctor with a new sense of surprise; even if he wasn't going to say more, the mere implication of what he wasn't saying was enough to make her think. "You have ideas about that?"  
  
"We're still working out the details, but we _have_ found evidence that there was someone deliberately behind this," the Doctor nodded. "Apart from the fact that someone tried to kill the only mortal man left on the planet, we've also found hints that someone has been setting up a network to eliminate anyone who might be able to oppose the Miracle, dating back to long before it went into action, which led us to a few interesting hints that certain companies were actively preparing for something like this."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Stockpiling antibiotics and other drugs in a quantity that goes beyond what anyone need for anything pre-Miracle."  
  
"Stockpiling?" Vera looked at him in surprise. "Are you suggesting… the pharmaceutical companies knew that this was going to happen?"  
  
"Only one company, as far as we can tell, and only in the sense that they were stocking up on painkillers when there wouldn't have been an obvious reason to do so," the self-proclaimed 'Doctor' explained, before he looked at her with a tentative curiously. "Are you all right?"  
  
"My… my mother had a massive stroke last year," Vera said, the memory still painful as she recalled seeing the once-strong woman lying so still. "I… I had to make a choice. God, if I'd just kept her alive a little longer-"  
  
"It might not have made a difference," the Doctor cut her off, placing a reassuring hand on hers as it lay on the table. "We've seen nothing to indicate that people are going to get _better_ from that kind of serious injury or illness because of these events; they're just not going to die from it. It's possible that injuries like Agent Matheson's will eventually heal if he's given enough time to rest, but that's not the same as expecting someone to get over the damage caused by a stroke."  
  
"…Maybe," Vera conceded, nodding tentatively at him; it was still too early to be sure how normally fatal injuries would cope with the subject's inability to die, but he made a good point about how people were likely to react on a biological level. "But there are so many other cases… God, someone from PhiCorp even gave me their _card_ earlier; some woman called Kitzinger wanted me to attend some kind of private meeting…"  
  
"Really?" the Doctor looked at Vera with a thoughtful smile. "I don't suppose… I realise that this is asking a lot of you, but would you be willing to… attend that meeting for us?"  
  
"For you?" Vera looked at him in surprise.  
  
"For our team," the Doctor clarified. "I assure you that you won't be expected to do anything that might put you at risk or compromise your moral integrity; we just need to be able to get some more information about PhiCorp, which means getting a look at their files and maybe taking a look at whatever meeting might be taking place."  
  
"And you think that will help you find who caused… this?"  
  
"At the very least it'll help us rule out a suspect."  
  
"…This morning, I tried to treat a woman who had been strangled by her husband," Vera said, her tone solemn as she looked at the younger man. "Her brain was basically soup from oxygen deprivation and her neck was practically dust, but since she was still biologically alive, the police couldn't charge her husband with murder… God, they told me they weren't even allowed to _say_ 'murder' under the new rules!"  
  
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, looking at her with a solemn expression that reinforced her earlier impression of him as a man of great age despite his apparent youth.  
  
"I'm not saying that I can help you get all the answers about what's happening here… but if you think you can help, I might be able to get you inside the building where the meeting will happen."  
  
"That could be enough," the Doctor nodded with a thoughtful smile. "Just provide us the address and time, and maybe let us through the door…"

* * *

"You're sure this is safe?" Gwen looked uncertainly at the Doctor as they walked up to the PhiCorp building Vera had identified for them. "I could just do this with the Eye 5s-"  
  
"And you'd see a lot but probably understand not that much," the Doctor cut her off. "No offence, Gwen Cooper, but you're not a scientist; you focus on trying to spot any useful faces in the main conference, and I'll see what I can find on the science front."  
  
"And you're sure you won't get caught out?" Gwen asked, still unsure how serious the Doctor was about his current plans. "I mean, you're relying on a _key_ to protect yourself?"  
  
"This key's been synced up to the TARDIS's chameleon circuit after a few past close calls; it generates the same low-level perception filter your elevator used back in the day," the Doctor explained, reaching down his shirt to briefly lift out the key he was wearing around his neck. "So long as I'm wearing this, any sensors in there will read me as human, and people who aren't expecting me to be there won't see me unless I talk to them first."  
  
"Neat," Gwen smiled at him, before they walked up to a fire door at the rear of the mail building. The Doctor gave the door a sharp knock and it opened to reveal Doctor Juarez, now wearing a dark blue jacket and skirt.  
  
"Doctor," Vera nodded at the Time Lord, waiting a moment as though trying to encourage him to provide his name, before she looked uncertainly at Gwen. "And… you are?"  
  
"Gwen Cooper; one of the best we've got," the Doctor smiled, nodding at the doctor. "Just keep everyone busy at that meeting of yours; we'll do what we can here."  
  
Nodding in understanding, Vera turned back down the corridor towards the meeting, Gwen following behind the woman as the Doctor headed down another corridor. Soon finding the office of Jilly Kitzinger, the closest thing they had to a name for someone in authority in PhiCorp, the Doctor quickly sonicked the door open and sneaked into the office. Grateful that his time training Amy had helped him brush up on his contemporary computer skills, the Doctor turned the computer on and was swiftly able to start copying various files onto the memory stick he'd been given by Jack.  
  
 _Slower than I'd like, but it's discreet; I just have to hope these give us something_ …  
  
As the drive finished its work, the Doctor removed it from the computer just as a young red-haired woman walked into the office, with a confidence in her manner that made the Doctor certain she was Jilly Kitzinger. Pressing himself back against the wall, the Doctor waited until the woman had walked to the computer and then quickly slipped out of the open door to head down another corridor.  
  
"I've got the data," the Doctor whispered as he reached up to activate the discreet earpiece he'd put together the night before. "Everything coming along at your end?"  
  
" _We're running facial recognition on the footage from the conference_ ," Esther replied. " _PhiCorp have a lot of people talking about this from all over the world, and they're all focused on the idea of making prescription drugs legal on a global scale, but from what the lip-reader's giving us, they're just talking about making new rules rather than talking about how they're in a position to do anything about it_ …"  
  
"The tragedy of this kind of situation; once people are offered a solution, they don't often think about the reasons why someone might be able to offer it," the Doctor observed. "I'll wait outside in case Gwen needs any help, and we'll join you later."

* * *

Jack didn't like leaving people alone in the middle of a crisis, but once he'd realised that he had a chance to question a potential key player in this situation he had decided to take the opportunity.  
  
It wasn't that Jack doubted Esther's investigative skills- so far she'd proven to be an exceptional asset in her field, whereas Rex was just being kept on because nobody disliked him enough to want him to suffer whatever was the equivalent of getting killed right now- but with the amount of media attention being directed at Oswald Danes, he'd prefer to chat with the man directly. Maybe Esther was right and Oswald was only significant because he was executed on the right day and was smart enough to spin that into a 'career', but when Gwen had seen Oswald in PhiCorp, he'd slipped out of the flat managed to track Danes to the nearby broadcast station, sneaking into the building via a suitable back window.  
  
"OK," a voice said, Jack turning to see Oswald Danes walking into the room with a nonchalant manner, "you ready for me?"  
  
"Yeah, sure," Jack said; he didn't think this lie was going to work for long, but he might as well take advantage of the opportunity.  
  
"I'd apologise for being late, but it wasn't my fault; I was needed across town," Danes continued. "Still, made it, and this will be going on live, yes? Can you tell me who's interviewing me?"  
  
"Yeah, it's… Sod it," Jack drew his gun; the Doctor was better at this kind of impulsive bluff anyway.  
  
"I suppose a man like you was always on his way," Danes observed, looking back at Jack with the kind of coolness that made Jack think he would have reacted that way even if the gun was able to kill him.  
  
"You met with PhiCorp today," Jack said. "Why?"  
  
"You'll have to ask them," Danes replied, still frustratingly nonchalant.  
  
"Did they mention the name Jack Harkness?" Jack said; it might be tipping his hand, but he had to cut to the chase if they were going to get anywhere. "Have you heard that name?"  
  
"Never," Danes replied. "Why do you ask, Jack? I figured if you cared that much about the name, it was probably yours."  
  
"I just want you to talk," Jack countered as he took out a small recording device; whether or not Danes knew his name didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but he was _going_ to come out of this with something…  
  
"What about?"  
  
"I saw you on television saying you feel forgiven for taking the life of a child," Jack said, wishing he could stop himself thinking about Steven once those words passed his lips; he understood why the Doctor couldn't always show up, but that didn't stop it hurting when he wondered if the Doctor could have helped him during that crap with the 456. "That's a lie. I know that's a lie."  
  
"How do you know that, Jack, with such certainty?" Danes asked.  
  
"Tell the truth!" Jack yelled, refusing to get drawn into that kind of question. "The murder of Susie Cabina? You don't feel sorry at all."  
  
"The truth is… she flaunted it," Danes said, moving slowly towards Jack even as the gun was aimed right at his throat. "Her innocence. Most people, they get hit or whatever, it's hours before the bruises rise up. But they showed right away with her… It was like I was _painting_ on her. And she looked so beautiful, I thought it couldn't get any better than that, but oh, Jack… I swear to you, right then at the end, I felt her life leave and she left through me."  
  
The fact that the man was actually smiling as he spoke was the really disturbing part for Jack.  
  
"Yeah," Danes continued. "You know that feeling? I think you do. And I relive it every single night, because that was the best moment of my life."  
  
 _The best moment of my life_ …  
  
"Now I understand," Jack said, lowering his gun as he looked at Danes with a mix of horror and contempt. "You're doing all this because you're searching for one thing. One simple thing. Execution. World without death, so you get to live. And it's killing you."  
  
"Jack," Danes said, actually looking like he was fighting the urge to laugh, "what are you going to do with that recording?"  
  
"We're in a broadcast centre," Jack countered. "Figure I might broadcast it."  
  
"Excellent idea, if only I didn't have to do this," Danes responded. "Boys!"  
  
A duo of guards walked into the room and grabbed Jack from behind before he could move to react properly.  
  
"Take that recording off him," Danes said, as the guards took a firm grip on Jack. "I did visit PhiCorp, and they were kind enough to offer me protection."  
  
"In exchange for what?" Jack asked, refusing to show fear; he might be able to die right now, but there was no way anyone else could know that if Danes didn't know it himself.  
  
"The message," Danes said, picking up a jacket and walking for the door. "Don't hurt him, just get rid of him. It was nice to meet you, Jack Harkness."  
  
The man actually had the nerve to pause as he was about to walk out of the door. "Well, you can hurt him a little, but not the face. That's how it's done these days."  
  
Jack didn't have time to wonder what that meant before he felt the first punch to his stomach, gritting his teeth at the new sense of pain, such a contrast to the sharpened form of pleasure he'd felt last night…


	9. A Day at the Beach

As Jack staggered back to the apartment after being thrown out of the building, having taken a series of punches from Danes' thugs, he made one mental note to look over whatever Danes' next broadcast was going to be about, and another to remember to be more cautious in future confrontations.

He had frankly been lucky that Danes didn't even think of suggesting more lethal damage; right now, Jack had to forget decades of operating on the principle that he could take anything anyone threw at him and evaluate his actions based on the idea that he could actually _die_ now and the rest of the world would assume nobody could die. The Doctor might be taking the lead in this investigation, and Jack appreciated his friend taking charge, but at the same time he had to remember that the Doctor was going to need all the help he could get when dealing with something this big…

 _I just need to work out what the Hell this has to do with me; am I mortal because of a fluke side effect of whatever did this, or because something specifically targeted me_?

"What-?" the Doctor began as soon as Jack walked into the small room.

"I know I was an idiot, so don't bother telling me that," Jack cut his friend off, wincing as he sat down. "I tried to confront Oswald Danes, but he doesn't know anything; he might be the face of this movement, but he's just a sick bastard with a death wish,"

"Death wish?" Natalie repeated uncertainly.

"The man has a death wish and he's now immortal," Rex observed. "It'd be funny if he wasn't such a monster."

"Do we… want to know-?"

"You really don't," Jack shook his head at Natalie. "Trust me, _I_ don't want to know, and it takes a lot to make me feel _really_ sick these days."

"And this is the guy talking about free access to drugs because governments screwed us over in coping with this mess?" Amy asked.

"He's probably hoping he'll find some way to get what he's looking for…" Jack began, before he looked around the apartment and realised that the apartment was surprisingly empty. "Where did everything go?"

"We… might have tipped off whoever we're dealing with that we're on to them," Rex said.

" _What_?" Jack glared.

"We got a phone call on the phone we took from Rex's boss while you were all away and Esther and K9 tried to run a trace on it," Amy clarified. "We got cut off before we got through more than a few vines, but… well, K9's working on it for future reference."

"Still, even if there's a risk it tipped off whoever's after us, it at least gave us a more practical lead than anything else we have right now," the Doctor conceded.

"We didn't get anything from the PhiCorp download?" Jack asked.

"So far just a few relatively vague comments," the Doctor shook his head as he patted a laptop bag slung over his shoulder. "I managed to look over a few files before we had to pack everything away, but it was mostly generic observations and public theories. Doctors have observed the risks of people becoming germ incubators as diseases multiply and spread in bodies that will remain contagious as long as they exist, and tests have confirmed that even severed body-parts are still aging and pregnancies aren't aborting-"

"Pregnancies abort?" Amy asked. "I mean, you're not just talking about mothers _getting_ abortions, right?"

"Correct, Pond; if they reach a certain stage and the body determines that the pregnancy isn't viable, the mother's body will just… get rid of the baby on its own," the Doctor clarified, his tone particularly solemn as he continued. "But as far as anyone can tell, those self-abortions aren't happening right now; if this immortality isn't ended soon, we run the risk of children being born… I mean, I value life, but there are some conditions that nobody should have to face just to experience it."

"I guess we don't want to know?" Natalie asked apprehensively.

"Probably not."

"Anyway," Gwen said, her face twisting in uncertainty, "right now we don't know _how_ PhiCorp know anything, but we do know that they've got something to do with the charge, which at least gives us a target."

"Quite," the Doctor nodded, the brief smile on his face the only outwards sign of his gratitude for Gwen giving them a more defined goal. "We don't know what PhiCorp have to do with all of this, but they had to know _something_ was about to happen, and now we have a convicted killer preaching about the benefits of free drugs and companies talking about the possibility of dumping contraceptives in the water supply in India…"

"OK, I get the practicalities of that, but that's just _sick_ ," Amy observed, her face twisting in an uncomfortable expression.

"Just one of the many long-term complications caused by this 'Miracle' that we need to take into account. Right now the question of PhiCorp stockpiling drugs is a smaller problem, but it's the best clue we've got to anyone having advance knowledge of the Miracle, so the question becomes how we deal with it."

"Which we can work on once we're in our new base of operations," Rex cut in. "For all we know some asshat could be after us any moment, or did you forget why we're packing up?"

"New car?" Jack glanced over at the Doctor.

"We'll take it as it comes," the Doctor replied. "In the meantime, we have a couple of things to deal with before we move on."

* * *

A part of Esther felt that she should feel guilty, but even without the fact that parties in the CIA had already sold her out even before she knew anything significant about the current conspiracy, the current team was showing more concern for her as a person in a week than the CIA had shown her in the last few years. She'd been tempted to look in on her sister before they moved on, but Amy had insisted on taking on that particular job herself, arguing that nobody really knew what she looked like apart from those who'd been involved in their initial extradition and she doubted anyone would be looking explicitly for her yet anyway. Esther had given Amy a couple of 'passwords' so that she could assure Sarah that Amy knew her, but it had still taken an effort to convince herself to accept the argument that this was the best way to check on her sister…  
  
Still, as they drove towards California, Esther tried not to think about the references Amy had made to some of Sarah's rants. Her news that someone had come to Sarah's house asking about Esther was worrying, but the way Sarah had been talking about infections in various other parts of the country…  
  
 _God, we need to find a way to stop this soon, before Sarah does something she'll regret…_  
  
As they drove into Venice Beach, towards Jack's latest chosen safehouse, Esther wondered if she could afford to take time out to have a day or two off and enjoy the sunshine. She appreciated that they had to stay alert and ahead of whatever they were trying to track down, but it had been so long since her last vacation, and they had K9 to help with the computer stuff…  
  
"Wow, look at that horizon," Gwen grinned as they got out of the car and walked towards the beach, Rex's earlier complaints forgotten. The town was relatively small, with various small food joints along both sides of the street and elaborate graffiti on some walls, but it at least gave them easy access to a nearby beach. "We've reached the edge of America."  
  
"Decades since I last saw the Pacific," Jack said, as the group took in the sight of the ocean. "Must be about seventy years."  
  
"May be about that for me, give and take," the Doctor mused.  
  
"Are you… kidding what you say things like that?" Esther looked uncertainly at the two men she was surprised to find had won her over as leaders in a manner even Rex had never managed to achieve.  
  
"It's best to leave it," Amy grinned over at Esther. "The Doctor… well, sometimes he likes to be mysterious just because."  
  
" _Incredible_ …" Natalie whispered, looking at the long expanse of sand, the people walking around in swimsuits and carrying surfboards, and the palm trees along the edge.  
  
"Oh yeah…" Amy looked over at the blonde with a wistful smile. "You've… never been to the beach, have you?"  
  
"The water back… where I was born… wasn't exactly the kind you could swim in," Natalie acknowledged, her smile faltering before she looked back at Amy. "Could we… go there later?"  
  
"We have things to do-" Rex began as he walked up to join them.  
  
"Which aren't always going to require all of us, and while you're doing research like that you don't exactly need _us_ ," Amy indicated herself and Natalie while giving Rex a cool stare. "Feel free to call us when we're ready to go into PhiCorp itself, but I think you can spare Natalie and I for a bit while you're doing background research, right?"  
  
"You don't just get to-!" Rex began indignantly.  
  
"Natalie is _going_ to have the chance to enjoy herself," the Doctor said firmly, before he smiled over at Amy and pulled a few notes out of his pocket. "Get yourselves something for the beach; everyone only gets one first day at the seaside, after all."  
  
"She's _never_ been to the beach before?" Esther looked between the Doctor and Natalie in surprise.  
  
"I… had a rough childhood; I just didn't have the time," Natalie explained with a shrug. "Before… the Doctor… found me, I didn't really have… well, I never had the chance to just…"  
  
"Say no more," Esther nodded at Amy and Natalie before looking back at Rex with a firm glare. "Amy's right; they can't do anything right now, and this girl _deserves_ a break if she's never seen the beach before."  
  
"…Fine," Rex rolled his eyes in exasperation before he looked over at Jack. "Is this how Torchwood works?"  
  
"We try to offer good vacation opportunities," Jack shrugged. "Gwen got to go to Cuba for her honeymoon."  
  
"Which we appreciated," Gwen smiled over at Jack before she looked back at Amy and Natalie. "Seriously, though, you two enjoy yourselves for a bit; we'll work on cracking PhiCorp."  
  
"Once we've found somewhere to hide while we plan to go after them, anyway," the Doctor observed. "It's just a few miles that way to PhiCorp headquarters in Los Angeles, but we need to put together a proper plan to get in…"

* * *

Amy fully appreciated that they were in a dangerous and unprecedentedly complicated situation right now, and she was fully committed to helping the Doctor and his new/old allies solving the mystery of the missing death (and why was she suddenly reminded of some fantasy novel she'd read once?), but she didn't think it was asking too much to get a break when she and Natalie would just be underfoot. Right now the Doctor was obviously needed in case they found something scientific, Jack and Gwen were good at keeping people on-target, Rex likely had a few CIA secrets he could use or at least better understood the American side of things, and Esther and K9's computer expertise went without saying, but Amy couldn't do much when dealing with computers, and Natalie's skills were more on the physical side of things, so it didn't seem unreasonable to enjoy a holiday.  
  
OK, so she would admit to herself that she'd chosen her blue bikini carefully to find something that looked at least a _little_ like the colour of the TARDIS, but there was nothing wrong with liking the colour, right? That said, she was still going to have a talk with Natalie later about diversifying her wardrobe; this was the first time she'd seen Natalie in anything other than the military clothes she'd apparently been 'created' in, and the other woman had just chosen another swimsuit in a similar shade of green to her usual clothes.  
  
It was certainly more revealing than her usual attire, and Amy didn't feel like she was being too hypocritical to worry that Natalie was showing too much when the girl didn't really know how other people might react to her, but the fact that this was the first time she'd seen the other girl in anything different…  
  
"Do Time Lords have something against variety?"  
  
"What?" Natalie looked curiously at Amy, moving up to lean on her elbows and look at her fellow TARDIS companion.  
  
"I mean, the look works for your dad, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I've ever seen him in something but the tweed and bow-tie unless he absolutely _has_ to change, and this is the first thing I've seen you wearing that isn't that uniform and you…" Amy shrugged uncertainly. "Don't get me wrong, the colour looks good on you, but why didn't you try something else?"  
  
"I… I just liked it," Natalie said, sitting up and looking tentatively over at Amy. "I mean, I tried a few things in the wardrobe room, but the shirts always seemed too loose, some of those shoes left me feeling like I was going to lose my balance, I just wasn't sure about any of the gloves or scarves… is… is that a bad thing?"  
  
"Huh?" Amy's eyes widened in new understanding. "Oh, it's not _bad_ , and it's good to know you gave other clothes a shot and just didn't find something you liked; I just… look, I get that you've had an unconventional childhood and all that- OK, bad choice of… actually, how old _are_ you?"  
  
"A few years."  
  
"A few?" Amy repeated.  
  
"I mean, when I left the colony I travelled for a few months before I found something that would let me travel in time, and then I basically just went jumping around time looking for Dad and helping out where I could, so… y'know, I lost count of exactly how long I was in some places, particularly when I was just drifting and ended up falling through a rift or two…"  
  
"Or two?" Amy looked at her with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"I mean, there was the time I fell into an other-dimensional prison and had to stop a telepathic criminal I'd released by accident, this time I had to expose a conwoman who'd gotten the entire population of her planet addicted to drugs while posing as some warped dragon overlord… I ended up stealing my next means of transport to escape and things got complicated," Natalie shrugged. "I ran into some rough patches while I was getting away, but it's hard to be sure if some of them were just spatial anomalies or if some of them were space-time ones, particularly when I don't know what the date was when I got out in relation to everywhere else…"  
  
"How do you know anything about that stuff?" Amy asked. "I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but… I mean, from what your dad told me, you just got created with a bunch of military stuff before he left…"  
  
"I guess I picked up a bit more on instinct than I realised," Natalie smiled as she leant back. "I mean, I had to get a _bit_ more from Dad than anyone else; I think after a certain point the progenitor machines just started taking knowledge from other people rather than relying totally on what was programmed into it already…"  
  
"That… makes sense, I guess," Amy nodded tentatively, before she smiled. "Some schools would _really_ enjoy having that as an option…"  
  
"What was school like?"  
  
Amy just stopped herself from reacting in shock to that question; she appreciated on a practical level that Natalie had never been to school herself, but it was another thing to be _faced_ with that fact all of a sudden…  
  
"It was… well, it could be rough," she said at last. "I mean, I had a bit of a difficult time of it, but that was just because I was… I mean, I established a reputation early on as a strange kid who believed in your dad even when everyone else said I was crazy for it."  
  
"They really thought you were crazy?"  
  
"It wasn't _that_ extreme," Amy observed, not wanting the Doctor's daughter to get a negative impression of humans in an unconventional situation. "I mean, it was hard at the time, but you have to realise that kids can be cruel without meaning it; they just don't _think_ about how what they're doing will really affect other people…"  
  
"That seems-"  
  
"It's not," Amy cut her off. "Kids aren't naturally bad, but they're not naturally good either; you lucked out in getting a great moral example from your dad, but most normal kids need to grow up the hard way and learn how to tell right from wrong with good examples. I had the Doctor's example to help me learn those lessons, but these kids… they just thought I was the weird girl who enjoyed telling a strange story…"  
  
She leant back on her towel with a sigh. "That's what gets me worried about what might happen when we move on…"  
  
"Move on?" Natalie looked at Amy sharply. "You mean _leave_? You want to leave Dad-?"  
  
" _No_ ," Amy said firmly, looking reassuringly at Natalie. "I don't _want_ to leave, but… look, did I tell you about Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith?"  
  
"I think I heard those names…"  
  
"They were old companions of your dad. I'm not sure how long ago it was, but they were each with him for a while a few centuries before us, but… well, Jo decided to move on with her life and become an environmental activist, and Sarah started tracking alien activity as a freelance journalist…"  
  
Noting Natalie's uncertain stare, Amy shrugged. "There might be a few others I don't know about, but at least they had good lives after they moved on from their time with your dad, right?"  
  
"And you expect that to happen to you?" Natalie asked anxiously. "You really think you'll just-?"  
  
"Your father would never _make_ us leave," Amy reached over to place a reassuring hand on Natalie's shoulder. "I mean, I can't say what's going to happen in the future, but I know your dad; he'd never just… kick us out because he's bored, and I'm _not_ going to leave you and him just for the sake of it."  
  
She resisted the urge to comment that most people left the TARDIS to get back to their normal lives; she wasn't sure she'd ever had a 'normal' life since she was seven years old and the Doctor appeared in her garden for the first time, and Natalie had never really had a 'normal' life since hers began.  
  
It wasn't as though Amy _wanted_ to leave, but for the first time she could recall, she suddenly wondered what would make her stop travelling with the Doctor. Would she find some particular planet she wanted to focus on helping, would she just become tired of life with the Doctor, would she decide that she…  
  
"Break's over."  
  
"Doctor?" Amy looked up at the Time Lord in surprise, smiling slightly at the sight of her old friend standing between her and Natalie, looking even more conspicuous than normal wearing his traditional attire in the middle of a beach full of sunbathers. "What's up?"  
  
"Things are getting difficult," the Doctor said, looking between Amy and Natalie as though he was trying to focus on their faces rather than anything lower. "We've managed to find a place, and Esther and K9 are setting it up for computer access by hacking a Chinese satellite network, but… well, have you heard the news?"  
  
"What about the news?" Natalie asked.  
  
"Not only is the health care system being threatened, but apparently there's a small-town mayor arguing that those who've sustained normally death-inducing injuries should be treated as dead and basically ignored."  
  
"Excuse me?" Amy looked at the Doctor in outrage. "What the _Hell_ -?"  
  
"It's the darker part of human nature, Pond; people are faced with an unpleasant truth, and decide that it's easier to ignore it," the Doctor observed grimly. "With some people complaining that they should still be allowed to work as 'sick leave' isn't an issue when they can't die anyway, it was only a matter of time before somebody started speaking out against the technically deceased…"  
  
Amy appreciated that it was somewhat morbid that she preferred thinking about something this twisted to facing her own feelings for the Doctor, but everyone had their own way of coping with things.


	10. Dead is Dead

"'Dead is Dead'?" Amy glanced at the pamphlet Rex had handed around the apartment. "I _really_ don't like the implications of that."

"Tell me about it," Rex nodded. "Whole philosophy seems to be that we should act like anyone who would have been killed without the Miracle is basically dead already; I mean, what about people who've _healed_ from it?"

"Have you actually healed from _your_ injury?" Natalie looked curiously at the CIA agent.

"Well… OK, I'm still bleeding, but it's not like there's a lot of _precedent_ for healing from shit like this," Rex indicated his wound.

"And we can't be sure how long it would take, anyway," the Doctor observed, looking apologetically at Rex for a change. "Believe me, if we could afford to give you the time to rest-"

"Not an option," Rex shook his head. "We're all on the lamb right now; can't afford to take time out long enough for that kind of personal crap."

"If you're sure," the Doctor shrugged, before he looked over at Gwen. "Do we have anything more on this 'Dead is Dead' group?"

"Mostly it just started as some small-town mayor trying to make a name for herself in the current mess," Gwen said bitterly. "She gave this big speech about how everyone who should have died should just be treated as dead and taken away somewhere so that they're not 'draining resources' from other people, going on about how segregation's 'necessary' and they'll die eventually…"

"What?" Natalie looked at Gwen indignantly. "That's just- they're still alive _now_!"

"That's the way of politics, Natalie; for every person who wants to help the common man, some people just want to make a name for themselves and don't care how," the Doctor said bitterly.

"Should we be worried about this whole thing?"

"Not as much as we should be worried about Danes," Jack put in.

"Getting a bit focused on that guy, aren't you?" Rex looked at Jack in a particular manner.

"Uh… should we be looking at Kitzinger as well?" Esther asked. "I mean, if we're thinking Oswald Danes is important-?"

"Kitsinger's freelance," Rex shook his head. "Checked over her file, and she just joined PhiCorp a few months ago; nothing indicates she's anything more than lucky enough to be working for the right people at the right time."

"Whereas Danes is the most public figure in this post-Miracle world," Jack affirmed, looking grimly at a screen displaying Danes at his latest conference. "George Eliot once wrote that if you take a piece of metal with random scratches all over it and hold a flame up to the metal, the scratches look like they're forming patterns circling around the light."

"And that's Oswald?" Natalie asked.

"That's Oswald," Jack nodded. "He's blazing away and patterns are starting to revolve around him; all we have to do is keep watching until it all comes together."

"What about Monroe?"

"She's a controversial figure who's going against the idea that there's any kind of benefit to be gained from this system," the Doctor observed. "As much as I don't like it, Miss Monroe's just creating a target on her back for the people who want to benefit from this chain of events, and I don't think she's smart enough to give them trouble. We have to focus on solving the problems in front of us, even if that means leaving her to her fate."

"And she deserves-?"

"What she deserves isn't the question; what we can do about it is," the Doctor countered as he looked solemnly at Amy. "There are times when we can't afford to try and save everyone, Pond; the stakes are just too high to worry about helping someone who has decided to use a difficult situation to build herself up by encouraging the idea that others should be treated like nothing."

"…Particularly when we have to focus on undoing whatever gave her that opportunity in the first place, right?"

"Exactly," the Doctor nodded, even as he gave Amy a sympathetic smile. "Monroe's a symptom, Amelia Pond; our focus right now has to be the disease, and our best lead now is PhiCorp. They're currently organising a payback scheme to local communities in Los Angeles, which to me suggests that they might have a weak link or two trying to appease their conscience for whatever role they played in causing this in the first place."

"That's a bit cynical for you, isn't it?" Jack observed.

"If that's about Monroe, I like to give people a chance but in a situation like this there isn't time to make a point to her, and if that's about PhiCorp, I'd like to believe it's just them being generous, but we've got too many red flags directed at this company so far for me to believe that."

"And that's before you start looking into their history," Esther added. "I was doing some background reading while you were setting up the bigger equipment, and when I tried to track PhiCorp's owners, everything just… scattered."

"Scattered?" Gwen repeated curiously.

"There were all sorts of names and tangents and diversions, but nothing tangible," Esther affirmed. "It's like someone's trying to hide PhiCorp even online, dating back to before the Miracle…"

"All the more reason for us to get inside and take a direct look, right?" Natalie asked.

When Rex went out for a few hours and returned later that night, Amy wasn't sure if she should bring it up to anyone else. She might not entirely like the man, but she wasn't going to be petty enough to try and talk to the ex-CIA agent about something that had clearly caused him some pain, based on her own experience of dealing with difficult emotional experiences back in Leadworth.

_That's the one thing being with the Doctor doesn't teach you; you can help people cope with the terror of alien invasions or temporal anomalies, but you can't talk to people about their difficult personal relationships…_

"So, to recap," Esther said, standing in front of a projection on the wall as Rex unpacked the new server they'd ordered, "there's over a hundred dedicated servers identical to that one inside the PhiCorp building, all containing corporate data. But, according to Jilly Kitzinger's information, number one thirteen is a secure server accessible by only the highest corporate brass."

"That's our target," Jack said with a firm nod.

"And when PhiCorp says secure, they mean secure," Esther said as the display shifted to focus on a particular part of the building. "I have _never_ seen firewalls like this before, and even K9 doesn't think he'll be able to crack anything without making it obvious what we're doing."

"Too secure for you, K9?" the Doctor looked at the robot dog in surprise.

"With contemporary networks and salvaged technology my only available resources at this time, affirmative," K9 confirmed.

"In other words, no immediate sign of explicitly advanced technology for this time period; good to know."

"Right…" Esther said, looking uncertainly between K9 and the Doctor for a moment before she shrugged and decided not to question that topic any further. "Anyway, with that in mind, our only option is to physically steal number one thirteen and cover our tracks by leaving a duplicate in its place."

"And that's _less_ obvious than hacking it?" Natalie asked, mimicking her father's surprise as she looked at Esther.

"When we're going to fake a fire that make it look like the server was destroyed rather than stolen, anyway," the Doctor explained, as Gwen briefly turned away to check a message on her phone. "We do this properly, they'll think it was just a technical error or aborted sabotage at worst, and they won't react in time to do anything about it."

"Makes sense," Rex said, nodding as he looked at the Doctor and Jack. "So how are you gonna get me inside to scout it out?"

"We're not."

"Excuse me?" Rex glared at the Doctor.

"He's right," Jack said coolly. "You're still on CIA lists, Agent Matheson; it's way too risky to pass you through security."

"And what makes you any better?"

"Natalie and I literally don't exist on any record here you'd be familiar with, Pond isn't on any database that would be monitored in America, and Jack and Gwen were wiped after their time in Torchwood; we might need your tactical insight, but you're a liability in the field even without that wound."

Rex glared at the Doctor for a moment, but finally nodded his head in resignation.

"So what do we have to get through to get that server?" Amy asked.

"This is the IT centre where the servers are housed," Esther explained, pulling up a particular part of the display. "Floor 33, maximum security, completely enclosed. We need to gain access, but it's restricted with some heavy duty biometrics. Only one man can gain total access, the man who designed it. Nicholas Frumkin."

"What kind of biometrics?" Rex asked as Esther brought up a personnel file for the man in question. "I mean, what level?"

"Every entry needs voice print, palm print, iris recognition by him and him alone."

"OK," Rex nodded with a tentative smile. "Then I know exactly what you need to do."


	11. The Last Paradox

Amy didn't know how the Doctor felt about the moment when Natalie accompanied Jack on the mission to get Frumkin's biometrics while posing as his wife, but she fought down the thought that there was any reason she should feel weird about that. Natalie was a good friend and fellow traveller; she should be proud that the other woman was spreading her wings, not feel like she was…

God, she wasn't even sure what to think at this point; what _was_ Natalie to her? She knew that she wasn't jealous of the other woman on any level, as Natalie had endured such a difficult life and never even had a true childhood…

Somehow, it was the knowledge of Natalie's age that bothered Amy the most. She trusted the idea that Natalie had received a knowledge download that gave her at least some useful experience, but the idea that this woman, who looked a couple of years older than her but was really barely a couple of years old...

 _I love my life, but it is_ really _weird sometimes_.

Still, she couldn't complain about the results of their mission, and it gave Natalie an interesting chance to try something new. Once they'd found Frumkin's usual schedule involved walking through a park with his wife and baby daughter, it had been simple enough to stage a meeting with him to get the data he needed. Jack pretended to misremember a name, Natalie gave Frumkin a bottle to hold while she examined the baby (Amy had to wonder if that was Natalie's first time even _seeing_ a baby properly, considering that Gwen's husband had taken their daughter away so quickly), and then they made Frumkin look at a photo to get a retina scan.

 _Just glad we talked him into something better than 'Jack Smith'; 'Malcolm Pond' might be a bit off, but it's not so normal or so unconventional that people might remember it_ …

With the biometric data collected, Gwen and Jack were taking point in infiltrating PhiCorp while Esther, K9 and the Doctor would stay in the apartment and Rex, Amy and Natalie waited outside the building as a getaway car and potential back-up if needed. Rex and Esther had managed to do some convincing fire damage to the server they planned to switch out, and now there was nothing more to do than wait for Jack and Gwen to get out of the building.

"I should be-" Rex began.

"But you're not," Amy cut him off with a cool stare. "Like we've already pointed out, you're not in any kind of shape to deal with something like this; Jack and Gwen are good at their jobs, and you should just stop complaining about not being the one taking point."

"And why can't I do this?" Natalie pointed out.

"Because Gwen's more experienced at this kind of potentially improvised infiltration," Amy explained to the blonde with a smile. "Short-term is fine, but something like this… send in the best we've got, you know."

"Yeah, your 'best' are a couple of jokesters who treat this like a game-" Rex began.

"Because it's the best way to stay sane when faced with the kind of potentially mind-numbing terror we face every time we deal with this kind of crap," Amy cut him off, glaring firmly at the older man; if she could tell her childhood psychiatrists that they were wrong, she could certainly do the same to this man now that she _knew_ she was right. "If you don't agree with the way we do things, that's fine, but don't act like we're wrong just because we're not doing it your way."

"Besides," Natalie pointed out with a slight smirk, "no offence, but if you'd just done things your way, we'd all be in trouble, wouldn't we?"

Rex could only glare at her in exasperation at that comment, but he settled down in his seat with a frustrated mutter that at least seemed willing to concede the point.

* * *

Even after living among humans for almost longer than he'd lived on Gallifrey- even if he hadn't been a consistent part of any one human time period for longer than a few years at a time- there were times when the Doctor wondered if he'd ever understand what made his favourite species tick. He could understand a desire for redemption as much as the next man, but with everything he'd heard about Oswald Danes, the Doctor had no idea why anyone wanted to believe that the man had any interest in changing.  
  
He wasn't going to deny that the man was well-spoken, and the broadcast he was making from this hospital sounded compelling enough, but the fact was that Danes clearly didn't have any real 'plan' beyond saying something dramatic, making promises but offering no solutions. The image of him vowing that a certain baby would live forever was certainly a powerful one, but when the Doctor was fairly sure Danes didn't have a clear plan to achieve that goal, he had to wonder why anyone was listening to the man's words.  
  
"Query, Master."  
  
"Mmm?" The Doctor turned to look at his old friend (he still wondered why he'd left that part of K9's programming intact after all the confusion it had caused during that mess with the Asteroid and the Rocket Men).  
  
"Is Oswald Danes important?"  
  
"On his own, he's just a man who got a lot of publicity at a crucial moment," the Doctor responded, pausing the screen to look at Oswald's face directly. "But sometimes all people really need for a movement is one man; Guy Fawkes wasn't the leader of the conspiracy to blow up Parliament but he's still the one everyone thinks of on November 5…"  
  
He shook his head and looked back at K9. "The end result is that I don't _know_ if he's important in that sense, but he's making enough noise that I'd like to be sure."  
  
"Understood," K9 said.  
  
"Hi," Esther said, the Doctor turning to see the young woman talking on her phone, shooting an apologetic but defiant glance at him as she spoke. "Yes, I'm calling from the FBI; police liaison. I was given this number by Susan Malpass. I just need to check some details on… let me see… the name's Drummond. Sarah Drummond, King Sovereign Road."  
  
The Doctor could only exchange anxious glances with K9 (as much as the dog's permanently-fixed features could look anxious) as Esther listened to the response on the other end of the line. He had faith that Esther wouldn't betray them on purpose, but in a situation like this he couldn't entirely blame her for becoming concerned about someone she might know…  
  
"That's it," the ex-CIA-analyst said tentatively. "We're just chasing an update."  
  
As the Doctor fell silent, he heard a voice on the other end say something about children, and thought he could just hear the names 'Alice' and 'Melanie'; what was Esther calling about…?  
  
"Right," Esther said, as he heard the voice on the other end mention that the children were in the system. "I'm sorry; what does that mean?"  
  
" _It'll take a few days_ ," he heard the voice say; now that the Time Lord was actively concentrating in the quiet apartment, it wasn't that hard to hear the other end of the conversation. " _They'll stay at Brayden Long Heights until we can find them foster homes. We'll try and keep them together. It shouldn't be too much of a problem_."  
  
"I'm sorry; are you saying that they've been removed from their home?" Esther said, her expression becoming tighter.  
  
" _That's right_ ," the woman said. " _This morning at eight a.m_."  
  
"I thought you said you were gonna work with the family."  
  
" _We tried; of course we did_ ," the woman replied. " _But it wasn't considered safe, and the mother has been admitted for psych_."  
  
"She what?" Esther said, eyes widening in shock.  
  
" _She's been under observation in the psych ward under the care of a Doctor, where is it…? Doctor Cottesloe, that's it_ ," the voice on the other end said, still apparently ignorant of how much her words were affecting Esther. " _No report on file yet. Should be something in tomorrow or the next couple of days_."  
  
"What happened?" Esther said, her simple desperation reminding the Doctor why he liked her; she might be out of her depth, but the young woman hadn't lost the human compassion that was important in a situation like this. "How did she end up like that?"  
  
" _What did you say your name was_?" the woman on the other end asked. Esther was about to respond when the Doctor walked over and took the phone from Esther's hand, ending the call with an apologetic look at the young woman.  
  
"Sorry, but you were reaching the point where you'd be giving away more than we can afford to tell anyone right now," the Doctor explained.  
  
"I was just-"  
  
"I understand," the Doctor cut her off, not wanting her to think that he was actually angry with her. "We all have people we're worried about right now, but all we can do at the moment is focus on the task at hand. You have every right to be worried about the children, but if we don't find out what caused this… well, things could get difficult for them at best."  
  
"… Right," Esther nodded tentatively at him, an awkward smile on her face. "Th… thanks."  
  
"I'm sorry I can't do more," the Doctor smiled back at her. "Anyway, let's get on with this."  
  
"Right," Esther said, turning back to the screen that had just started displaying Gwen's perspective after she activated the Eye 5 lenses. "Here we go."

* * *

Walking through the corridors of PhiCorp, Gwen wondered if it would give certain people the wrong impression if she admitted that she was actually enjoying this whole experience. It wasn't as though she didn't recognise that she was doing something potentially dangerous, but there was still something kind of fun in doing this kind of mission where all she had to do was stay ahead of human security teams, rather than having to outsmart hidden alien invaders.  
  
OK, so all she'd had to do was show off her fake ID and leave the Doctor and Esther to provide a cover story for her presence, but she still had to be convincing enough to get through the door in the first place, to say nothing of making her way through the building without attracting attention before she was in position. Once she reached the service lift, she only had to wait a few moments before Jack appeared, pushing a large wooden box on a trolley and wearing a short-sleeved uniform in a colour that could be sickly green or a darkish blue depending on the light.  
  
"Hello, handsome," she grinned. "Love the uniform."  
  
"Ditto," Jack said, looking over her tight black dress. "Come on."  
  
"Oh, hold on," Gwen said, halting her pace to take off her shoes. "Whoever wears heels to work is heroic. Why do women put up with these things? Look at 'them."  
  
"The fire department's average response time is twelve minutes," Jack said, bringing her focus back to where it had to be for this situation even as she put her shoes in her handbag. "When they arrive, Esther's gonna direct them to the fourteenth floor. That should buy us another five minutes before they start checking other floors. Let's go, mistress."  
  
With that said, he walked a few paces down the corridor before setting fire to a piece of paper that he held under a smoke detector, smiling as the alarm went off and the tannoy announced that everyone should evacuate the building. Trying to stick to the side stairs and hope that nobody would wonder why anyone was going up during a fire alarm, Jack and Gwen had soon reached the server room, using the voice record, the latex glove, and the Eye-5's iris scan to get past the security sensors.  
  
As soon as they were in the room, Gwen and Jack made straight for the relevant server system. Jack tore the wooden box open with ease, and Gwen had just started to disconnect the cables when her phone rang. She only had time to shoot an apologetic glance at Jack before she took out her phone and accepted the call.  
  
"Yeah," she said, recognising Rhys's number. "Anwen all right?"  
  
" _She's fine; she's at home_ ," Rhys replied with a smile. " _Look, I know you're busy, but I was just phoning about your dad_."  
  
"Is he OK?" Gwen asked. She'd been trying not to think about her dad's state in the current situation, as they had to prioritize getting the world back to normal over one life, but it didn't stop her thinking that she should be asking the Doctor if he could do anything about that once they had the time…  
  
"… _no change_ ," Rhys confirmed on the other end of the line. " _I just saw him and he sends his love. But I did what you said and I made a fuss about getting him moved_."  
  
"OK," Gwen said, as she kept urgently disconnecting cables. "Look, I haven't got time for this, sweetheart. Just tell me, can you get him out of there?"  
  
" _Yes, I can; shall I go ahead_?"  
  
"Oh, I love you," Gwen said, deciding to focus on appreciating the sentiment rather than worrying about being interrupted in this situation. "I love you. I love you. I love you. Just do it and leave me alone. Oh, and give Anwen a big kiss. Okay? Bye."  
  
As she turned back to the current task, she smiled gratefully to see how Jack had almost finished switching out the original server for their burnt replacement. As she put her phone away, Jack stepped aside to let her finish connecting the last few cables; if all went according to plan, he could get out of the building with the server and look like he'd just been delayed by the alarm while she finished things at this end…

* * *

Jack supposed he should have known that things had been going too smoothly for too long when he got down to the basement and found himself looking at a man who'd basically been strangled lying beside the car. He'd made it back up to the server control room at a pace that surprised even him, but when he'd found Gwen tied up and gagged with computer cable, he'd lost focus just long enough to get taken by surprise from behind (that was his story and he was sticking to it).  
  
Now that he'd regained consciousness, his head aching in a manner that he'd almost forgotten it was possible to ache, tied up with computer cables of all things, Jack wasn't entirely surprised to find that his attacker had tied Gwen up alongside him, the cables previously blocking her mouth now around her neck and her arms behind her back. Jack's own hands were tied to cables above his head, his legs similarly bound in front of him, but he didn't have time to establish more than that Gwen was all right before a man walked around the corner, wearing a dark jacket over a dark T-shirt, with a weathered face and grey hair that spoke of a man who had just become harder with age.  
  
Jack had no idea how this man had gotten into the server room, but considering everything that they'd needed to get this far discreetly, Jack had a bad feeling about what might have happened to Frumkin…  
  
"What the Hell is this?" Gwen looked indignantly between Jack and the other man. "Who are you?"  
  
"Names aren't important right now," the man said in a cool voice.  
  
"Oh great, one of those," Gwen rolled her eyes.  
  
"What do you want?" Jack said, resisting the urge to inform the other man that there was only one person in Jack's experience who could get away with not giving a name and this man wasn't him.  
  
"Well, clearly, you dead," the man said.  
  
"Then why am I still alive?" Jack observed.  
  
"That's the point," the apparent assassin said, pacing nonchalantly in front of Jack and Gwen with a gun in his hand. "It's got to be said Miracle Day has hardly been advantageous for those in my line of work; the day the killing stopped. But I can't tell you, Jack, how wonderful it is, how truly wonderful it is to meet somebody who's… mortal. It's my holy grail."  
  
"If he's the only one who can die, then it's in your interest to keep him alive," Gwen observed.  
  
"That's exactly what I'm doing," the assassin countered as he crouched down in front of Jack. "Haven't you noticed the absence of killing? Because this captain fascinates me. I've been paid to eradicate him, but that only makes me wonder why. What makes you so different?"  
  
"I don't know," Jack said.  
  
"And yet you're the only one left," the man observed. "The only true human."  
  
"If I knew, I would tell you," Jack said coolly. "I'm trying to find out the same thing myself."  
  
"Who employs you?" Gwen asked, after a brief mutter that left Jack thinking someone had sent her a message via the Eye 5s.  
  
"Don't you have any idea, Jack?" the assassin responded with a low whisper. "They told me it was a very long time ago. Don't you remember?"  
  
"Who?" Jack said. "Who told you that?"  
  
"This would be so simple in the old days," the assassin said, his voice now so quiet that Jack could barely hear him as he walked over to hold a knife against Gwen's throat. "Tell me what I want, or I'll slit her throat. I keep wondering during these miraculous days, would it be better or worse knowing that her pain will last forever? I think better."  
  
"Leave her alone!" Jack yelled.  
  
"Then tell me!" the assassin countered, breaking his cool control.  
  
"I. Don't. Know," Jack countered. To his relief, the assassin removed the blade from Gwen's neck and sat back, head bowed as though in thought, before he looked back up.  
  
"You're very special to them, Jack," the assassin said, his voice low once again. "They trust me enough to tell me that. But I hear rumours of miracles yet to come, of a new society being forged here on Earth, and I'd like to guarantee my place. So, tell me, what did you give them so long ago?"  
  
"When?" Jack asked.  
  
"Tell us who's employing you," Gwen repeated.  
  
"You'll never stop them, for this is who they certainly are," the man said, stroking Gwen's lip with his blade; for someone who talked like he was only in this for the money, he was sounding dangerously fanatical to Jack. "They are everywhere. They are always. They are no one. They have been waiting for such a long time. Searching the world for a specific geography."  
  
"What the Hell does that mean?" Jack asked. He privately considered and discarded the idea that this man might be talking about Faction Paradox; for a group that prided itself on chaos, he couldn't see them being committed enough to do something this apparently long-term.  
  
"That means that they've found it," the assassin said, exchanging his knife for a gun and aiming it at Gwen's head.  
  
"And they've made it magnificent."  
  
"Who are they?!" Gwen yelled.  
  
"They once had names," the assassin said. "Long ago… and those names were Frines, Costerdane, and Ablemarch."  
  
"Check," another voice said from behind the assassin. Jack's eyes widened in recognition as Natalie stepped out from behind a server and struck the assassin on the side of the neck with a quick finger-tap that rendered him unconscious.  
  
"Took your time, didn't you?" Gwen looked at Natalie with a half-teasing smile even as her body shook from terror.  
  
"I had to wait until he gave us anything useful," the Doctor's daughter shrugged as she set to work untying Jack and Gwen. "Do the names mean anything to you?"  
  
"…Not off the top of my head," Jack shook his head apologetically at the two women, fighting to calm himself; he had grown used to putting his own life at risk that it was hard to accept that he genuinely couldn't do anything to save his teammates when they were in danger now. "I mean, it's possible I just don't remember them, but you have to keep in mind that I've had a _really_ long life…"  
  
"And that's before you start thinking about how they might not have told you what their names were whenever you encountered them anyway," Gwen observed as Natalie released her bonds. "Should we take him with us?"  
  
"…Don't think it's worth it," Jack said, looking thoughtfully at the fallen assassin. "Whatever this guy knew, I think we probably got lucky he was trusted enough to give us the names when he thought we weren't going to be in a position to share it with anyone later. If we try to get him out, we're going to have to deal with the hassle of working out how to make him talk until we're satisfied he doesn't have anything new to tell us, assuming that he has anything more useful anyway… and to be blunt, I don't think your father would approve of some of my methods."  
  
"The Doctor said don't bother bringing him," Gwen put in as she finished removing the last of her own bonds; Jack noted that she had been carefully not looking at him as he spoke, which at least suggested that the Doctor hadn't heard what he'd not-quite suggested. "Seems like he agrees that this guy won't know much; we should just get out of here and get to work on that server."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me," Natalie nodded in approval at them. "I take it that's somewhere safe?"  
  
"Already secure in the van downstairs; I just came back for Gwen," Jack indicated his oldest remaining teammate.  
  
"Right," Natalie grinned, before shooting a contemptuous look at the fallen assassin. "Let's just get out of here before he wakes up."  
  
"Amen to that," Jack nodded at the Doctor's daughter. That man might have provided them their first true connection to whoever was behind this, but Jack wasn't in the mood to try and make a fanatic crack, particularly when he had faith that the Doctor would be able to find something better…


	12. New Developments

"We had a goddamn lead, and you just-?" Rex began as he looked indignantly at the team members involved in the recent break-in attempt.

"He was the kind of fanatic who wouldn't have told us anything useful even if we worked out a way to make him talk, and I'm pretty sure whoever hired him wouldn't have told a man like that anything more than they needed him to know." The Doctor looked coolly at Rex. "You start to realise that we're not going to get anywhere by making threats; we have to-"

"Just because you're too chickenshit to do what-!"

"You may want to rethink that," Jack cut in, fixing Rex with a cold glare. "If you're going to call the Doctor a coward because he doesn't like to kill, you should consider how many people _have_ died because he was pushed far enough that even he felt that was the only option."

"What does that have to do with-?"

"Don't ask questions you're not going to accept the answer to," Amy cut him off, before she looked over at where Esther had already started examining the server while also looking at something on another monitor. "So, what have we got?"

"Firstly, no reports of that guy who attacked you, but we can't know if that's because he escaped or because they're hiding the facts."

"Could be either; I only wanted to put him down for a few minutes, but that move varies in how long it works depending on how I did it," Natalie put in.

"We'll just keep an eye out then," Esther nodded at the other woman before turning back to her screens. "Secondly, I'm still working out the full details of what's on this server, but I've been running a program to find some key patterns with the Doctor and K9's help, and I think we've found something."

"Specifically?"

"Specifically," Esther grinned at the others, "a series of land prices dating back years, linked to these construction plans."

"Construction plans?" Natalie asked, looking curiously at Esther. "For what?"

"They're calling them overflow camps for all the patients in ICU," Esther explained, as the display projections showed some of the plans on the wall behind Esther's laptop. "Looks like PhiCorp is taking charge of them, like they own them. Sold some kind of strategy to the UN."

"Overflow camps?" Amy repeated apprehensively. "That… doesn't sound good, right?"

"It's foreboding, certainly," the Doctor nodded.

"But for the moment we've got nothing more to go on than the idea that World War Two here knows whoever's behind this," Rex observed, looking over at Jack. "You're sure you don't know who that guy was talking about?"

"I've lived through thousands of years and we have no way of knowing if I even knew those names in the first place; you can't just cut me a _little_ slack?"

"Falling back on that old-?"

"You know, if you're not going to _believe_ anything we have to tell you, just back off and leave us alone," Gwen glared over at Rex. "Like the Doctor said, we don't _want_ you dead, but if you keep being this aggravating you're just going to wear out your welcome and you'll be left to take your chances."

Rex and Gwen exchanged glares for a moment, but the silent confrontation ended when Gwen's phone rang, prompting her to swear in frustration as she answered the call.

"I am so, so sorry," she said, shooting a final glare at Rex as she held up a warning finger even as her voice remained warm and reassuring. "I've been so busy I couldn't ring you back, but look, I'll call you back in half an hour and that is a promise."

She paused for a moment to listen to the other end of the call before she spoke again. "What is it? What's happened?"

She paused to listen to the response and then looked apprehensively at the others.

"What scheme?" she said, taking the phone from her ear to turn on the speaker.

" _Government's stepped in prop up the NHS_ ," Rhys's voice said on the other end. " _They're spending millions, they said. They're building these sort of camps to help people_."

The shocked expressions the group exchanged after that comment confirmed that they were all on the same page.

"Overflow camps?" Gwen asked in horror.

" _Aye, that's it_ ," Rhys grinned. " _And I got your dad inside the South Wales site_."

"Oh no…" Amy whispered, looking anxiously over at the others. Natalie in particular was looking apprehensively at the Doctor, as though trying to imagine how she'd feel if she was in Gwen's position.

"OK, Rhys, listen to me," Gwen said urgently. "Do not let them go. Do not let them take my father. I haven't got time to explain, just… just bloody move."

" _They just moved him out_ -"

"Then stop them, OK?" Gwen said firmly. "This is bloody PhiCorp, Rhys, and they are up to something. Move! Don't let them go! Just get him back. Get him back now!"

The sound of sirens on the other end of the call confirmed what had just happened even before Rhys apologised for being too late.

"They've got my dad, Jack," Gwen looked at her former leader in horror as she ended the call. "They've got my dad."

"Oh no…" Esther whispered.

"Right," Amy nodded in resolution before she turned to the Doctor, Jack and Rex. "Can you get us passports and tickets back to the UK?"

"Us?" Jack and the Doctor repeated while Rex just looked at the young redhead in surprise.

"Well, we're making progress on the PhiCorp front, so you should probably keep following that up, but Gwen's not going to be any use to anyone if she's worrying about her dad, and…" Amy shrugged. "I mean, I'm not really doing anything here right now but being an extra pair of hands if you need some work done, but Gwen might need help back in Cardiff."

The Doctor looked at her with a twisted expression on his face, clearly uncertain how to respond to her observations, before he nodded.

"All right," he said, smiling in understanding at his companion before looking over at Gwen. "If you don't mind-?"

"Every little helps, right?" Gwen smiled back at him, fighting down her fear for her father.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…"

"What now?" Jack looked over at Rex.

"You guys just can't focus on anything, can you?"

"Excuse me?" Amy raised her eyebrows. "We _did_ just manage to infiltrate a major company and retrieve what could be a vital clue-"

"And ended up getting caught by some psycho assassin who said he only regretted that he couldn't kill any of you for good," Rex interrupted. "We don't have time to worry about one old guy-!"

His dismissive expression to be cut short when he felt a hand slap his face.

"If you're going to just go on about you think we've screwed up, get over yourself and get out," Amy said with a cool glare, while Gwen's expression suggested that Jack's hand on her shoulder was the only thing holding her back. "This is a serious situation and so far the only thing _you_ seem to want to contribute is complain about the fact that we aren't doing this way you think we should. If you can't do anything but criticise our way of doing things, maybe you'd be happier just handing yourself into the CIA and convince them you were betrayed so you can try and sort this out 'the proper way'?"

"I'm just asking for some Goddamn professionalism-"

"Agent Matheson," the Doctor folded his arms and glared at the CIA agent, "have you considered that doing things _your_ way nearly led to us all being handed over to whoever is behind this?"

"We don't know that they've got that much influence; they could have just framed us and got you all locked up-"

"Speaking from experience, it only takes a few people with the right contacts to take over everything; we have to assume the worst when dealing with something of this scale."

"Y'know, you can't just keep going on about how you've done all this stuff in the past and expect me to-"

"I'm not asking for blind faith from you, but I _am_ asking that you stop acting as though you're the only professional because you're the one with field experience in an organisation that officially exists," the Doctor clarified. "Just because you don't know what Jack and Gwen have dealt with doesn't mean that you can just dismiss them as incompetent. If you think they're a failure because their teammates are dead, then tell me, can you honestly say that you have _never_ lost _anyone_ during an active operation?"

Rex's silence was all the answer the Doctor needed.

"Exactly," the Time Lord nodded at the agent. "Whatever you think about the way we do things, we're facing a situation that you have _no_ experience in dealing with yourself, so you can keep complaining about how we're not doing things your way or accept that we do things a _different_ way, recognise that 'different' doesn't necessarily equal 'wrong', and let Gwen and Amy deal with things on the home front while we tackle the problem at this end."

"…Fine," Rex nodded at the Doctor before he looked back at Gwen and Amy, a resigned edge to his manner. "Got any preference for fake names?"

All parties knew that it would take longer for Rex to get past his current issues, but at the same time anything that made him stay quiet and work with the team was a step in the right direction.


	13. The Camps

As Amy sat alongside Gwen in the back seat of Officer Davidson's police car, she wondered what it said about the current mess that they had more problems overcoming bureaucracy than they did dealing with alien monsters. Getting into the country on fake passports had been straightforward enough with Rex and Jack's connections supporting the new identities, and she actually liked 'Sarah Grant' as an alias, but she'd only had a brief chat with Gwen's husband after he picked them up, and had barely had time to properly meet Gwen's daughter before the older Mrs Cooper was showing her and Gwen the plans she'd managed to find for the overflow camp that Gwen's father had been taken to.

Rhys had been convinced to stay behind to keep an eye on the baby while Amy and Gwen got a lift to the camp by a cop named Andy who was apparently Gwen's former police partner, but Amy felt uncomfortable the moment Andy's car paused outside the camp. The basic brick structures gave the impression that this had been an old barn or aircraft hanger of some sort before the current state of affairs (Amy hadn't actually looked to find out what this area had been before the current crisis), but the people gathered around a man standing on something didn't give a good impression of just how organised this place was, and those large blue doors felt foreboding no matter how Amy tried to tell herself they were 'necessary'.

Looking at all the people gathered outside the camp calling out for a chance to see their loved ones, she was suddenly struck by the notion that this was the worst things had been since the Miracle, and so far there still hadn't been any sign that any problems were being caused by anything more than a human reaction to the situation. If this whole 'make humanity immortal' thing was an alien plot, the aliens involved were taking their time getting down to business…

"Bloody hellfire," Andy said as he got out to join the two women.

"What's the size of this place?" Gwen asked.

"God knows," Andy said. "They've got patients coming in from Bristol, too. Hospitals are closing across the southwest because MRSA is going crazy. Add to that the increase in geriatrics and maternity, the NHS is gonna go bust by the end of the week."

"How many camps nationwide?" Amy put in.

"Thirty-five so far," the man replied, looking curiously at her.

"Which leaves the question of how PhiCorp were that prepared that fast."

"PhiCorp?" Andy's curiosity shifted to surprise.

"You said yourself that the NHS is going bust just trying to cope with medicine right now; do you honestly think they've got the resources to spare for this?" Amy observed.

"She's right," Gwen nodded. "This is all PhiCorp, and when private businesses take over health care under any circumstances, that's just the start of the problems."

"Right…" Andy nodded uncertainly. "Well… let's do this, shall we?"

The next few minutes were just chaos as Gwen tried to get to the front of the crowd of people gathered around the building, going so far as to get in the face of the man in the suit who seemed to be responsible for complaints. Amy had to hold out an arm to keep Andy back while Gwen took point, but when Gwen shook her head and stormed off in another direction, it was clear that she hadn't received the answer she was looking for.

"Well," Amy shrugged as she glanced at Andy. "At least she's getting somewhere, right?"

"…How do you know Gwen again?" Andy asked uncertainly as they walked briskly after the dark-haired Welsh woman.

"I'm basically the assistant to the guy who trained Gwen's boss," Amy grinned (she appreciated that Jack had picked up most of his skills pre-Doctor, but she was sure neither of them would mind the stripped-down explanation).

"…Jack," Andy looked at Amy incredulously as they reached the admin office. "You're the assistant to the guy who trained _Captain Jack Harkness_? How does that even _work_?"

"Like Jack, he's unconventional," Amy smiled at the thought of the Doctor, before they reached the admin area and Amy shifted to a more serious expression. If Gwen was going to convince anyone to let her dad out of this place, it would probably be best if she didn't look like she was enjoying this situation. Following Gwen into another part of the camp, Amy and Andy found themselves in a large stone building that put Amy in mind of one of those corrugated huts from the Second World War, with a set of numbered kiosks that reminded her of passport control at an airport.

"Excuse me," Gwen said, walking past a man in a surgical mask standing at a gate before heading up to a man in camouflage fatigues. "Excuse me, Lieutenant, this won't take long; I need to move a patient, it's urgent-"

"Then you really need to speak to one of the care workers over there," the man said. "They can tell you how to process your claim."

"Claim?" Amy repeated, moving up to stand beside Gwen. "We're not here to sort an insurance issue for a car; we're here for her father-"

"With police authority-" Andy put in.

"We are not under the control of the Welsh police, Sergeant."

"Look, his name is Geriant Wyn Cooper," Gwen cut the lieutenant off with an exasperated tone. "He's had a heart attack but he was recovering…"

"So he sounds like he'd be Category Two, which means he'll be perfectly safe in here, if you'd care to read the definitions-"

" _Definitions_?" Amy repeated, as Gwen took the offered folder. "We just want to get a man out of a clearly overcrowded facility when he was signed up because of a mistake-"

"This isn't bloody martial law!" Gwen cut in, glaring at the PhiCorp logo on the back of the offered papers. "My father is a taxpayer and a law-abiding citizen who's entitled to go home, and I'm not moving until I take him; have you got that?"

"Yes, that's perfectly clear," the man said. "And I hope it's also clear why I'm now having you arrested."

" _OK_ ," Amy cut in, grabbing Gwen and putting a hand over her mouth before the older woman could say anything else. "We'll… just be going, shall we?"

"I'm not-!" Gwen protested.

"Given time, we will have this facility open and happy, and running like clockwork with access for all, but right now we have cholera and dysentery and swine flu, and every single patient needs immediate definition under the three categories, so it's a lockdown," the lieutenant said bluntly. "No one is allowed in and no one is allowed out. When the situation changes we'll let you know. Thank you."

Gwen glared in exasperation at the lieutenant, but Amy liked to think her firm hand on Gwen's arm helped encourage her to turn around and give up the confrontation rather than try and continue it.

"Bloody categories," Gwen growled as they returned to Andy's police car. "All the things I fought with Torchwood and what stops me? Red tape."

"So we'll work it out," Amy glanced back at the camp. "I mean, I broke into the compounds of both sides of an alien war when they were both basically dealing with a thousand years of conflict; how hard can it be to get into a health camp that was set up a few days ago?"

"Alien war?" Andy asked.

"We'll talk about that later," Amy waved her hand at him before she turned to Gwen. "OK, you're the one more familiar with our available resources right now; what's the plan?"

* * *

The Doctor liked to think he was maintaining the impression of being relatively in control of the situation, but he still felt as though he was dealing with something completely outside of his own experience. He was vaguely reminded of his fragmentary memories of the way his third persona had felt during that mess when he was on Dust before Compassion had helped him erase those events from his timeline, as though he was in a situation that he wasn't prepared to face. If the TARDIS always took him where he needed to go, it was as though coming back into the universe after their trip through those parallel universes had led to him crashing down into the middle of a situation he was just unprepared to actually face, scrambling to adjust to a situation that he was never meant to deal with…  
  
He appreciated that they were actually making some kind of progress in tracking whoever was behind this, but he still felt as though he was busy trying to catch up with a plan that he didn't immediately understand. He had been dealing with this situation for the better part of a week and so far he wasn't even sure if he was dealing with a human conspiracy, an alien invasion, or some twisted combination of the two.  
  
 _No TARDIS, no clue who we're fighting, and not even a fixed base of operations; we can't just keep renting flats or squatting until we find what we're up against…_  
  
His current concern about Amy just made it even harder for him to relax. He appreciated that she'd made a valid point that she wasn't contributing anything to their efforts at the moment, and Gwen could certainly use the help with something this dangerously personal, but this was essentially the furthest he'd been apart from her since they started travelling together. He'd been concerned about the young woman from Leadworth when she'd been trapped in the TARDIS's body after House took control, but he'd still had hope that she could handle herself until he got there when he was actively trying to get back to her. Right now, he had to rely on Gwen and Amy's own skills to protect them while he dealt with the situation at this end, and just hope that Amy could handle herself in that situation…  
  
On the upside, the group were already making some progress in their continued investigation of the stolen PhiCorp hard drives. The files omitted a few details about the camps, as though whoever had put these files together had kept some details offline just in case of a situation like this, but there were still a few points of interest that Esther was working on cracking. On a more personal note, Rex had reported that the doctor he'd been talking with had decided to join them full-time, which she attributed to the recent news of the creation of the 'Categories of Life' as part of the new 'Overflow Camp' system. The exact nature of the categories hadn't been released yet, but as far as the Doctor was concerned, anything that tried to define life in such a way was bad news even if it had started out with good intentions.  
  
For the moment, with Rex's doctor contact on her way, the Doctor had taken the opportunity to join Jack and Esther in having a brief rest in the sun on the beach. Natalie was having a walk further along the beach, keeping her phone available just in case she was needed on short notice, but the Doctor appreciated that she wanted to enjoy the beach without having to worry about her dad's opinion of her.  
  
It was strange; he'd come this far not thinking about what he may have missed out on by not being a father, particularly when his time with Susan was confusing at best even without his vague memories of the Other to take into account, but now he had Natalie actively eager for him to be her father, and as for Amy…  
  
The more time he spent with Amelia Pond, the more he found himself wondering what she was to him. He had spent time training her to prepare for her decision to travel with him, and Amy clearly 'suffered' from a lack of parental figures considering her aunt's inadequacies, but there was still something about her that made it hard for the Doctor to just 'pigeon-hole' her like that. Maybe it was just hard for him to adjust to having a companion again after everything he'd been through with the Faction, coupled with the obvious difference in his relationship with Amy and the way things had been when he'd been travelling with Jack, but something about Amy…  
  
"Do you think I'm useless?"  
  
The words drew the Doctor out of his reflection as he turned to look at Esther and Jack, standing close to him on the beach.  
  
"No," Jack smiled reassuringly at Esther. "I think you're new to all this."  
  
"Yeah, but I'm CIA."  
  
"And I'm UNIT's scientific advisor while Jack was the head of Torchwood and a former member of an agency that hasn't been created for a few centuries yet," the Doctor grinned reassuringly at Esther. "No matter our qualifications, we're all improvising in situations on this scale, Esther; I certainly never really knew _what_ I was doing with my life until… well, I think it would have to be Dido, and that was after getting into dangerous situations for the better part of a year."  
  
"Dido?" Jack looked at the Doctor in surprise. "What could happen there that made you start really getting out there?"  
  
"Someone had killed most of the local population to cover up a crime that he had committed after his ship crashed," the Doctor explained. "It wasn't the first place I helped, but it was the first time I'd _chosen_ to help; on most of my previous trips I just got caught up in the local situation because someone or something stopped me from just getting back into the old girl and leaving, but Dido… I realised that there was a problem and I stayed to deal with it when I could have just left if I really wanted to."  
  
"Huh," Esther looked at the Doctor with a thoughtful smile. "So that's what got you started on this whole… saving planets business?"  
  
"It's what got me doing it for more reasons than just wanting to get back to my ship and leave, anyway," the Doctor conceded as he returned Esther's thoughtful smile. "So you believe me?"  
  
"Let's say that I'm willing to… well, you don't strike me as the kind of nut who'd make up that kind of thing," Esther explained. "You're eccentric, certainly, but you're not _that_ kind of crazy… and how did we get onto this?"  
  
"I think we were discussing how we all have to just play it by ear when we're in these kind of situations," Jack smiled. "That's the big secret, Esther; at times like this we all defer to the one who speaks loudest, but at heart everyone just ends up wishing that their mother was here to take over."  
  
"Unless you're the kind of person who had to deal with everything because you never really had a 'mother'…" the Doctor mused.  
  
"You never had a mother?" Esther looked at the Doctor in surprise.  
  
"…Cultural thing; whole family took responsibility for raising the tots and… well, individual parenting wasn't really the 'done' thing," the Doctor said, surprising even himself for giving away that much. Looking back, he supposed that Innocet could arguably be considered as having taken a maternal role when he was growing up, but he hadn't truly understood the significance of her role in his life when he lived at Lungbarrow and hadn't had the time to really express himself when they'd last spoken.  
  
"Sounds rough," Esther said sympathetically. "I lost my mom back in 2003… what about you?"  
  
"I don't know," Jack said, looking wistfully ahead of himself. "Long ago and so far away…"  
  
A phone call drew them out of their contemplation, Jack staring at the screen with a wistful shrug before he turned back to his friends.  
  
"Rex," he said. "Let's get moving."  
  
As Esther followed Jack, the Doctor shot off a quick text message to Natalie before he joined his new colleagues (he couldn't call them 'companions' when none of them were travelling in the TARDIS right now), returning to the streets in time to see a taxi driving off. Rex was standing alongside the woman they'd previously glimpsed at the airport when they'd first arrived in America, now wearing a blue-and-white patterned dress.  
  
"Vera, this is Jack Harkness," Rex said, indicating the captain.  
  
"We keep meeting," Jack smiled at Vera as he shook her hand. "It's like destiny."  
  
"And I'm the Doctor," the Doctor smiled as he shook the woman's hand. "I believe we spoke on the phone a few days ago?"  
  
"Yeah, I believe we did," Doctor Juarez said, smiling uncertainly at the Time Lord. "And you also knocked me out and stole my car?"  
  
"And got it sent back to you afterwards," the Doctor pointed out with a slight huff. "I believe I apologised at the time; I just didn't have another option to get away."  
  
"…OK, I'll let you have that one," the doctor shook her head before she looked curiously at the Doctor. "So… who are you, anyway? Judging from our first talk, I take it you're not a medical doctor, but-"  
  
"My credentials and experience are long and complicated; just know that I'm experienced with strange situations and I'm here to help."  
  
"…That's the best you're likely to get from the guy," Rex shook his head. "Anyway, this is Esther; you met her earlier when I got hurt."  
  
"Doctor Juarez," Esther smiled. "Hello again."  
  
"You can call me Vera," the older woman assured her before looking around at the group. "I was lucky to get a flight. Everyone's coming to LA for this event tonight, the Miracle Rally. The plane was full and the AC was bust. I could use a shower."  
  
"We're a bit short of room," Jack apologised.  
  
"There are a lot of us here," Natalie added as she walked up with a smile. "Natalie Kriener; consider me the security specialist."  
  
"You?" Vera looked over the young blonde woman in surprise.  
  
"I'm stronger than I look," Natalie answered. "Let's just get to the room and work out our next move; we can sort out where we're putting everyone later."  
  
"Good call," Jack nodded. Introductions sorted, the group headed into the building and up the stairs to their newest apartment base.  
  
"Sorry about the clutter; we're still sorting through everything we've got so far," the Doctor smiled apologetically at Doctor Juarez as he opened the door and indicated where K9 was currently perched on a seat with a cable connecting his head to the modem. "In the meantime, K9's running a few searches until we're ready to take action. K9, this is Doctor Vera Juarez; she'll be joining the team."  
  
"Affirmative," K9 said as he turned his head slightly to look more directly at the doctor. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Juarez."  
  
"That thing talks?" Vera looked at the robot dog in surprise.  
  
"Affirmative," K9 responded. "I can also listen and respond."  
  
"He does that a lot," the Doctor grinned between the doctor and the robot dog. "Anyway, we need a little time to sort things out here, so for the moment-"  
  
"I'll… just dump my stuff over here," Vera said, heading off to the section of the flat that had already been marked out as Rex's room. As the CIA agent followed after Vera in as nonchalant a manner as was possible for him to pull off under the circumstances, the Doctor exchanged glances with Esther, Natalie and Jack.  
  
"Give them an hour?" Natalie asked at last.  
  
"Might as well," Jack observed as he indicated the surrounding boxes. "We still need a bit of time to set everything up here anyway."


	14. Plans for Infiltration

The Doctor freely acknowledged that human relationships would never be a strong point of his even after spending a few years basically living in Leadworth, but it didn't take an expert to realise that Rex and Vera had enjoyed themselves for the hour or so they'd spent in private before the rest of the team finished setting everything up in the main room. It was a small sign of humanity from Rex after he'd spent so much of the preceding time criticising the Doctor's allies, but at least it showed the Time Lord that Rex Matheson was more than the CIA agent who was at least having trouble adapting to the current situation.

Frankly, the Doctor actually liked that part of this operation the most; it may be frustrating to have to acknowledge everything he didn't know so far, but it was refreshing to be able to focus on something as simple as putting equipment together after his bigger challenges.

"And Torchwood is go," Jack smiled as he flicked the final switch on a projector, which displayed a holographic image of various opened files and other windows over the wall. "OK, this is everything we've gathered on the Miracle so far, and we've got chases updating every twenty seconds, tapping into major newsfeeds, WikiLeaks, backdoor routes into the CIA and FBI. What about South Wales?"

" _Yeah, I'm here_ ," Gwen's voice said, a laptop screen alongside Jack's seat displaying Gwen sitting in what looked like a kitchen with her daughter in her lap.

" _Count me in too_ ," Amy grinned, leaning in from the side of Gwen's screen.

"Good to see you, Pond," the Doctor nodded from his own position just behind Jack. "All in order?"

" _As much as it could be in order in a situation like this_ ," Amy shook her head solemnly.

" _Have you seen the latest_?" Gwen asked with a slight edge to her voice. " _France and Germany have all started Overflow Camps. The whole of Europe is joining in_."

"China's saying no to the camps and the Pan-African Summit said yes," Esther added.

"You're researching morphic fields?" Vera observed as a particular search engine displayed the term on the wall.

"Yeah, that's Jack's favourite subject," Rex mused from his own position by another laptop.

"It kept getting mentioned on the medical panels," Vera added. "But it's only theory… That's Jilly Kitzinger. Are you following her?"

"No, we're following Oswald Danes, but she never leaves his side," Rex clarified, indicating the man in the displayed photo beside Kitzinger. "He's connected to the top, even if he doesn't know it yet."  
  
"So this name, Torchwood," Vera asked. "You're like investigators?"  
  
"Dealing with the strange and unexplained," the Doctor smiled briefly. "The original institution had a questionable history, but Captain Harkness here did a good job rebuilding after he took over-"  
  
"Until it all went wrong?"  
  
"Can you _please_ stop being that _picky_ about how you think we're being unprofessional?" Natalie glared at Rex. "If you think you could have done Jack's job better, find out what Torchwood were dealing with back in those days and _then_ judge them for how it all ended."  
  
"Let's just accept that 'Torchwood' is a good name for what we're doing right now and work it out from there," the Doctor held up his hands placatingly.  
  
"Works for me," Jack nodded, before he smiled over at Vera. "And on that topic, welcome aboard."  
  
"I'm not sure if that's good or bad," Vera observed.  
  
"Just go with 'good'," Natalie smiled encouragingly at her. "Trust me, if anyone's going to sort this out, we are."  
  
"Getting back to the current situation," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together before Vera could ask any awkward questions, "let's talk about these 'Categories' I've been hearing about; what do we know so far?"  
  
" _Well, they've activated the categories over here_ ," Gwen said, as Esther clicked something on her laptop and brought up a display on one of the projections. " _It's officialdom gone mad. So listen, Category One is bad, yes_?"  
  
"Yeah," Vera nodded. "That's people with no brain function or anyone who would normally have died. They're now officially Category One."  
  
"Ordinary people are Category Three," Jack put in, indicating the display graphic Esther had brought up, displaying Category One as a red circle and Three as a white one, with Category Two basically two circles joined by a thick line between the other two.  
  
"Right," Vera said. "That's people with no injuries, nothing; they're fine. Then Category Two is everyone in-between. People who are alive and functioning with an illness or injury that's gonna persist but not kill."  
  
"Like me," Rex put in.  
  
"Yes, like you," Vera nodded.  
  
"Wait a minute," Rex said thoughtfully. "When I got hurt, I should have died. I was Category One. But now I'm healing so I'm Category Two. So which one am I?"  
  
" _And what about cases where people are just injured_?" Amy added. " _I mean, do we still qualify as Category Twos if we just have a broken arm or something that would_ never _have been a problem? The last I checked, the Miracle hasn't affected the way we heal from normal stuff, right_?"  
  
"Right," Vera nodded at Amy. "Officially the whole point of this is that the camps can take Category Ones and Twos so that the hospitals can focus on standard cases, but that analogy just outlines the problem with this whole system."  
  
"Exactly," Jack said grimly. "The only thing this process has done is create a situation where the government can define life and death, and thus basically decide whether or not a person is dead or alive."  
  
"And _nobody_ should have that kind of control over people," the Doctor observed grimly.  
  
"Still doesn't make sense," Rex put in as he glanced over one of the files they'd found from PhiCorp. "I mean, what does PhiCorp get out of this? How do they profit?"  
  
"You think they caused the Miracle?" Vera asked.  
  
"Well, they had advance knowledge, but they just deal in pharmaceuticals; it's got to be bigger than that."  
  
"Quite," Natalie nodded. "You don't jump straight to something as big as erasing death if you're just trying to make money selling drugs."  
  
"So you're looking for someone behind PhiCorp?" Vera asked.  
  
"That's our best idea right now," the Doctor nodded.  
  
"And whoever that is, maybe they need these Overflow Camps for a reason, because I have been looking into the NORAD satellites and the building specs… er, sorry, I've been overlaying documents…" Esther began, indicating her laptops as her fingers flew over the screens for a moment before she brought up a couple of maps. "Look, this is our nearest Overflow Camp in San Pedro. These are the specs that we got from the PhiCorp server. Spot the difference? Look at the building on the plans called the Module. But where is it on the photograph?"  
  
"No Module," Jack leaned forward uncertainly.  
  
"There's a Module on the plans but not on the photos," Esther smiled. "It doesn't exist."  
  
" _No, hang on_ ," Gwen cut in. " _I heard somebody refer to the Module today_."  
  
"Suspicious," the Doctor observed grimly.  
  
"The module's been masked," Rex observed. "That's what they do with military installations."  
  
"Right, so I went into NORAD and I got the undoctored photographs," Esther continued with a smile, displaying a photograph of what the Doctor assumed was the camp. "The building exist. Half of these are old army camps just being converted, and now anything labeled the Module is hidden from view so the public can't see what's going on. It's the same for all the sites I've checked. The same thing in Wales too."  
  
" _At least we know there's something else to be keeping an eye out for, right_?" Amy pointed out.  
  
"So they've taken buildings and sealed them off out of sight," Vera asked. "What for?"  
  
"Well, they're gathering all the Category Ones," Rex observed. "The only question is, what are they using the bodies for? Is it to investigate or to experiment?"  
  
" _Do you mean like dissections_?" Gwen asked anxiously. " _They're dissecting people_?"  
  
"Vivisections," Vera responded. "When they're alive-"  
  
"Let's not get into that right now," the Doctor cut in, noticing the uncomfortable expression on Amy's face at that idea. "What we need to work out is what they're doing with those modules."  
  
"…They could be cultivating," Vera suggested. "Making diseases to make more customers using Category One patients like petri dishes."  
  
"It could explain the rush to strip away their human rights…" Esther mused.  
  
"We can't jump to conclusions just yet," the Doctor cut in. "As Arthur observed, if we start theorising without data, we start altering facts to fit our views."  
  
" _Which means we miss the real solution because we're just trying to find evidence of what we think we already know, right_?" Amy asked.  
  
"Quite," Jack nodded at the Doctor and Amy. "If we're going to get answers, we need to find out what those Modules are, which means getting inside the camps to take a look for ourselves."  
  
" _Yeah, already on it on this end_ ," Gwen added. " _Rhys has signed up as a driver, and Amy and I used that ID software to get on the staff register; Nurse Yvonne Pallister is going on the night shift, with Sarah Grant down as a cleaner in another part of the camp_."  
  
" _Not glamorous, but everything we can do to get a good look at how this place works, right_?" Amy shrugged.  
  
"Bravo, Pond," the Doctor nodded at her.  
  
"And we can cover a few more areas at this end," Esther added. "San Pedro needs clerical staff; if I can get inside the office, there's bound to be paperwork on the module."  
  
"I could get inside," Vera added.  
  
"What?" Rex looked sharply at her.  
  
"If I use my position on the medical panels, I could go to San Pedro as an inspector."  
  
"Vera, this isn't a game, OK?" Rex protested. "Infiltration is specialised work and this time, I'm pulling rank."  
  
"Rank?" Natalie cut in. "You _do_ remember you're not actually in charge of us, right?"  
  
"I'm an agent in the Central Intelligence Agency-"  
  
"And Esther's the only other person here who ever worked in that agency, and neither of you work there now," the Doctor's daughter countered.  
  
"That said," the Doctor observed with a grim expression as he looked at Rex, "your injury _does_ make you uniquely qualified to get inside these camps…"  
  
"My thoughts exactly," Rex nodded at the Doctor, as though glad the two men were on the same page for once.  
  
"And on the topic of getting into places, should we be worried about Ellis Monroe?" Natalie asked. "I mean, that campaign of hers-"  
  
"She's off the board."  
  
"Off the board?" Rex looked at the Doctor with new curiosity. "What makes you think that?"  
  
"She hasn't been heard from in over twenty-four hours after she was making herself the face of a major political movement and now these camps are in operation to officially help those affected by the Miracle," the Doctor replied. "I may not have much interest in politics, but I think we can agree that any aspiring politician going missing that long is almost certainly dead."  
  
"Should we be concerned about that?" Esther asked. "I mean, if these people are confident enough to go after someone that public-"  
  
"It's easy enough to find the likes of Ms Monroe, but we've been staying undercover so far; we'll be all right," the Doctor smiled reassuringly at Esther, before he looked over at Rex. "Getting back to the original topic, if you're willing to risk it, we can send you into the camps."  
  
"Hey, we're basically checking out the hospitals; how bad can they be?" Rex smirked at the Doctor. "Don't overthink it, Doc."  
  
"Kindly refrain from addressing me as 'Doc'," the Doctor said, looking coolly at Rex before he shook his head and glanced over at Vera. "So who do we talk to about getting him sent to a camp?"


	15. Into the Camps

The Doctor might not like the current Categories, but he had to appreciate the speed at which the new system was currently operating. Once the new team had agreed that Rex was going to be sent into the camp, it had only been a few minutes after they placed the call that an ambulance had pulled up to take Rex away. Jack had played the part of 'concerned boyfriend' for no more obvious reason than a chance to have a bit of fun amid the current chaos, but once he was back in the apartment his attention was immediately on Vera as she shrugged on her coat and picked up a bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking firmly at the doctor who he now saw had changed out of the loose dress she was wearing earlier into a fancy blouse and dark brown trousers.

"Following Rex," Vera replied, her tone just as resolute as his. "I phoned Washington and pulled a few strings; I've got observer status."

"I thought we sent Rex in for that?" Natalie looked inquiringly at her.

"I was on the panels that set those things up; I _need_ to see what these camps are doing," Vera said firmly as she looked between Jack and the Doctor. "You can't talk me out of this… whichever of you's in charge of your little operation."

"Both of us and neither of us; it depends on who works best to give the relevant orders," the Doctor said, before he grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on. "And on the topic of being in charge, Doctor Juarez, you should get used to having an assistant."

"An assis- _you_?" Vera looked at the Doctor incredulously.

"Under 'John Smith'?" Jack looked pointedly at the Doctor.

"Of course not," the Doctor waved his hand dismissively. "No, for something like this, I think… 'Ian Taylor' will be a better call."

"Ian Taylor?" Vera shot a curious look at the Doctor. "Where did you come up with that?"

"Old friends of mine."

"Like Fitz?" Natalie smiled at her father.

"Older," the Doctor smiled. "Ian and Steven… in their own way, they helped me realise what I had to be when I started doing what I do."

He'd thought about dropping in on Ian and Barbara during his time in Leadworth, but it had never seemed like it would truly be safe to do that without drawing the Faction's attention back to them, and when Steven's new home was so far in the future, the less he did to attract the Faction's attention _there_ the better as far as he was concerned…

"OK," Esther put in, the Doctor shaking off his train of thought as he realised that she was talking to Jack. "The point is, Vera, the Doctor and I should be able to cover all the angles inside the camp, while you and Natalie stay safe out here to do a bit of… research?"

"She has a point, Jack," the Doctor looked at his friend with an apologetic shrug. "I appreciate you wanting to do something, but right now the only thing we know for sure about these people is that they know who you are. Add in the fact that you're currently the last known person on this planet who can actually _die_ …"

"He's right," Esther grinned, leaning over to place a kiss on Jack's cheek. "You're too connected and too fragile, mortal man."

"All I get is a kiss?" Jack replied, with the teasing expression the Doctor had long learnt meant Jack was just flirting because he was Jack rather than any serious interest.

"Look after yourself," Esther said with a more serious manner. "You're unique; you're Category Jack, so don't go getting into trouble."

"I'll make sure of that," Natalie put in, looking warningly over at Jack. "Be careful, Captain."

"As crystal," the former immortal nodded briskly at her. "So long as you're not going to put me on lockdown or anything like that…"

* * *

When she, Vera and the Doctor drew up next to the overflow camp, Esther couldn't stop herself smiling slightly at the thought that this was what her life had come to. She had spent years just working as an analyst for the CIA, never expecting to get closer to the action than the reports she wrote up for Rex and other agents in the aftermath, and now she was about to infiltrate what basically amounted to a death camp in the middle of a situation nobody could understand, working with at least two people who were making impossible claims she wasn't sure how seriously to take…  
  
"And remember," she looked over at Vera, "you don't know me."  
  
"And if we have to speak while we're in there, call me Doctor Taylor," the Doctor added with a smile.  
  
"Right…" the doctor said tentatively, before she looked over at Esther. "Be careful out there."  
  
With those final words, Esther left the car and walked up to the checkpoint, hearing the soldiers standing there saying something about showing ID. Once again relieved that she was just infiltrating the camp rather than smuggling anything inside it, Esther joined the queue for the checkpoint. She was briefly tense when her ID was checked and her bag searched, despite the Doctor and Jack's assurances that the new documents would stand up to scrutiny, but she was soon inside the camp and being led to her 'new' office. Most of the camp just seemed to consist of a mass of tents in military-green, with a few army trucks scattered around, but she could see at least one ambulance, along with a wide range of boxes that she assumed contained medical supplies. Eventually she reached what appeared to be one of the actual buildings on this site, and found herself in a normal-looking office with various filing cabinets against the walls, a few people on phones or computers around it.  
  
"What happened to Rosanna?" a large dark-skinned woman with short hair said as Esther moved to sit in an empty chair at the end of a desk.  
  
"I don't know," Esther said, deciding to keep the story simple. "They called me in from Central Office. My name's Esther."  
  
"Rachel," the woman replied.  
  
"Sorry, I don't know my way around the system yet," Esther said, grateful that she could at least bluff her way through this situation. "They told me to copy the states for the module."  
  
"Nothing to do with me," Rachel replied, with the kind of bland resignation Esther recognised from temp jobs the world over. "Ask Maloney."  
  
Looking in the direction that Rachel had indicated, Esther saw a glass-walled office at the other side of the room, with Venetian blinds half-hiding the person inside it. The door soon opened to reveal a balding man in a white checked shirt and glasses, who had what Esther felt was an exaggerated smile on his face as he walked over to greet Esther and the Doctor when a soldier escorted them in.  
  
"Welcome, welcome," the man said with a voice that struck Esther as overly loud. "My casa's your casa. My name is Colin Maloney and I'm in charge here."  
  
"Vera Juarez," Vera replied, shaking the offered hand.  
  
"Welcome to Medical Lot 338, Vera," Maloney replied. "Sorry about theat. Suppose you take it better than me, huh?"  
  
"It's fine," Vera said, ignoring the implication. "Let's get started."  
  
"Yes," Maloney said, looking curiously over at the Doctor. "I take it you're-"  
  
"My _assistant_ , Doctor Ian Taylor," Vera clarified, making the title clear as she looked firmly at Maloney. "I'm _Doctor_ Vera Juarez."  
  
"Oh," Maloney said. "Oh, I'm so- I thought you were… er… anywho, I'm not disappointed. I must have done something very good that-"  
  
"You received _two_ qualified experts to see how things are going at the camps, correct?" the Doctor cut Maloney off, a blank expression on his face that struck Esther as something that made the Doctor more foreboding. "Now then, we'd like to start with the Module."  
  
"I'm sorry, Module's closed, obviously," Maloney said, his voice actually lowering as he shrugged on his coat. "You're from Washington; you should know that."  
  
"I know that our inspection orders mention it specifically," Vera said.  
  
"Wow, a little dynamo, aren't you?" Maloney smiled. "Anyway, patients first, I think; don't you? That's always my motto."  
  
Maloney was so caught up in his own words that he missed the glance the Doctor exchanged with Vera, making it clear to Esther that both of them recognised that this man was doing everything he could to _not_ talk about the module.  
  
"Rachel," Maloney continued, looking over at the woman Esther had spoken to earlier, "pull my cart around for me, would you, honey? I had a little cart customised. I think you'll find it easier on your feet. Look at you. You're thin as a twig. Bet you'd snap easily."  
  
"I'm getting there, yeah," Vera replied, her tone just as cool as the Doctor's neutral expression. As Vera accompanied Maloney out of the office, the Doctor shot Esther a brief glance, Esther nodding at him in understanding.  
  
Whatever was going on here, they needed to take a look at that module, and if Malloney wasn't willing to include it on their tour and it was reserved for Category Ones, that meant using their latest inside man.  
  
Once she'd printed off the relevant form, it took Esther a few minutes until she felt that she could justifiably take a 'toilet break'.  
  
Carefully navigating her way out of the office, she moved through the outside tents as quickly as possible. Fortunately the records and layout made the majority of the camp easy enough to navigate, and she soon found herself at Rex's tent. After walking past a set of shelves with all kinds of medical bottles on them that looked almost untouched, she soon found Rex, lying a stretcher with an IV in his arm near the middle of the open area.  
  
"You OK?" she whispered cautiously; nobody nearby seemed in a position to pay much attention to them, but being careful couldn't hurt.  
  
"Yeah," Rex said, sitting up even as he kept the grey blanket over him. "Sure took you long enough."  
  
"It's busy out there," Esther countered defensively. "The Doctor and Vera are keeping the senior staff distracted-"  
  
"What?" Rex said, although Esther didn't need to know her former boss to recognise just what part of that statement had attracted his attention. "I told her to stay out of this-"  
  
"And you're _not_ the boss here, remember?" Esther replied, even as she took care to keep her voice level. "The Doctor and Jack approved of the plan so long as she took care not to draw attention, and the Doctor's here to make sure she doesn't push her luck too far."  
  
"But-!"  
  
"Look," she continued, slipping her new form into the clipboard near his bed, "take this; it makes you dead… God, I hate this."  
  
"Don't go getting sentimental on me," Rex said. "Did you bring the camera?"  
  
Esther just carefully slipped him the small digital camera they'd purchased earlier, once again praying that what they were about to attempt would be enough.  
  
"All right, great," Rex said, taking the camera and putting it under the blanket. "Now you need to categorise me; get me that red peg."  
  
When he indicated the set of blue and red pegs hanging from a pole close to him, Esther suddenly felt the sheer _wrongness_ of the situation.  
  
One little peg was all they were using to basically distinguish between life and death?  
  
The Doctor and Vera were right; life shouldn't be something you could just... _break down_ like this…  
  
"Go ahead, it's right there," Rex said, either not registering or just ignoring her own reaction to this. "Red peg. Put it right there. All right, here."  
  
"Keep that on you in case you need to change categories," Esther added, halting Rex's efforts to pass her the blue peg he'd been wearing previously.  
  
"Category One," Rex mused even as he put the peg into his pocket. "There's no coming back."  
  
"Don't say that; you're gonna be fine," Esther said. "Just find out what's inside the Module, and then you can join us all outside."  
  
"All right," Rex nodded grimly, before he lay down again, leaving Esther to hurry over to the nearest nurse.  
  
"Excuse me?" she said, hoping that they weren't about to make a mistake as she led the nurse over to Rex. "Hello, hi, excuse me? This man's in the wrong place. His chart says that he's Category One. I double-checked with the office. He's not supposed to be here so we need to get him moved. Take him to the Module, okay?"  
  
She wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of putting Rex directly in the line of fire like that, even if they had no evidence that he'd be in _direct_ danger, but they had to know what was going on behind the scenes here…

* * *

The Doctor still liked to take point when he was dealing with this kind of crisis, but he was coming to appreciate the advantages of letting someone else take official charge when he was going into the metaphorical lion's den. Doctor Vera Juarez was not only a credible public persona to 'lead' this investigation, but since she knew what she was dealing about from a medical perspective, she could focus on analysing the situation from that perspective while he  
  
"I want you to meet Ralph," Maloney said, pausing his cart so that a young soldier could get in the rear seat beside the Doctor. "He's my personal escort while I'm on the lot. Great guy, great guy."  
  
"Good to meet you, Doctors," the now-introduced Ralph nodded.  
  
"Same," the Doctor nodded politely at his new seating partner.  
  
"This is my first tour, but I think we might get some important people wanting to visit, you know?" Maloney said as he began driving.  
  
"Mmm," Vera responded in a non-committed manner, shooting a glance at the Doctor that showed she was just as uncomfortable with this as he was.  
  
"We've got a line on Hilary I'm feeling really good about."  
  
"Hilary Clinton?" Vera asked.  
  
"Duff," Maloney clarified as though it was obvious. "Hilary Duff… all right, this way."  
  
The Doctor couldn't immediately recall who either of those people were, but Vera's reaction to both suggestions was enough to assure him that neither was that impressive. As the cart came to a halt, Maloney showed Vera into a tent, the Doctor walking in after them in time to find the man paused in front of a television set.  
  
"Oh, we're missing it," Maloney said, looking at the image on the screen. "That Miracle Rally… I hear rumours of Phil Collins."  
  
"This patient is being monitored every hour," Vera noted as she picked up a random clipboard from beside one of the beds. "That's very good."  
  
"Yes, our priority is efficiency," Maloney affirmed. "If a patient is in decline, we monitor them very closely so that we can move them to Category One promptly without wasting any more resources."  
  
"Efficiency," the Doctor repeated as he looked at Maloney, hoping Vera wouldn't object to him putting their cover at risk by making his current point.  
  
"Yes, Doctor Taylor; _efficiency_ ," Maloney said as they walked into another tent. "We're dealing with large numbers-"  
  
"Of _people_ ," the Doctor cut the other man off with a cool stare. "Your priority isn't to just get through the most amount of patients at a time, Mr Maloney; it's to provide those people with care and genuine _attention_."  
  
"Everyone gets sufficient care-"  
  
"Category Ones are basically treated as dead," Vera cut the camp supervisor off, matching the Doctor's cool glare at the man. "If you move a person from Category Two to Category One, you're not just adjusting the level of care someone receives, you're essentially letting them _die_."  
  
"There are new triage regulations, Doctor Juarez," Maloney said, keeping his voice low. "We have to treat the ones who can recover-"  
  
"And those regulations were started for emergency situations only," Vera countered.  
  
"Well, this is an emergency," Maloney responded. "Everything here is an emergency. We can't give everybody private rooms. Would you like a private room… George? Yeah? See, they'd all love private rooms. But it's impossible. Now, you should see the kitchens…"  
  
The Doctor let his mind tune out slightly as Maloney continued his tour of the camp, clearly wanting to make sure they focused on what he felt were the positives rather than give them time to dwell on their negatives. He could just about acknowledge Maloney's point that the human race didn't have a better option for dealing with the current situation, but in the Doctor's book there was still a difference between trying to cope with a difficult situation and just accepting the status quo and leaving it at that.  
  
The question was just how bad things would get because of Maloney's inability to cope before they began to get better…


	16. Falling Angels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks are owed to the members of the Facebook page 'The Magic of Torchwood' who helped refine some of the details of a particular confrontation the Doctor has in this chapter.

With Gwen marching through the camp in an authoritative manner, all Amy had to really do was stick close behind her and be ready to step in if it looked like the older woman needed help. Disguising themselves as nurses was a fairly basic step to take in the current situation, but it got them into the camp and they didn't have to worry about anyone asking questions so long as nobody looked too closely at them.

Looking at the patients gathered in each area around them, Amy wondered if she should just feel sick or disappointed at how poor these conditions were. She could appreciate that a situation on this scale was going to be difficult to cope with, but it still felt like whoever had set these things up should have put more effort into making it comfortable. Did they even _realise_ that they'd probably have to spend time in these camps eventually if they didn't find a way to deal with this problem eventually, or were they just dealing with the short-term situation and hoping the long-term problem would sort itself out?

 _OK, the Doctor's taking a look at it, but it's not like anyone apart from us knows that_ …

As they walked through the various tents set up inside the old aircraft hanger, Amy wondered if she should feel impressed at the scale of what these people had done on such short notice, but decided to save any such admiration until they knew the extent of the current schemes. Gwen had managed to take a quick look at a few computers, but without knowing her father's exact condition and unwilling to show their cards too soon, the two were left just wandering around while trying to look as though they knew where they were going. Amy was vaguely aware that Rhys was somewhere behind them, his own pass in his pocket as he maintained a suitable distance to avoid giving the impression that they were actually part of a group, but so far the focus was just on finding Gwen's father.

As they walked through rooms full of beds that just consisted of red blankets and patients lying on them, Amy found herself already re-evaluating what these people had done; she appreciated that nobody was going to die in the current circumstances, but surely some kind of heart monitor was only appropriate to make sure they were in good condition-

"Gwen?" a voice called out from behind them.

"Oh my God, Dad!" Gwen said, turning around and running towards an older man lying in bed, wearing brown-and-yellow striped pyjamas.

"I thought that was you," the old man said, taking her hands in his and smiling warmly at Amy's new friend.

"How are you?" Gwen looked tenderly at her father. "How do you feel?"

"All the better for seeing you," the old man said, before his gaze moved to Amy. "And… who's your friend?"

"Amy Pond," Amy nodded at him with a kind smile. "I'm… I work with your daughter."

"Really?" the old man said with a weak smile. "What are you wearing? Pyjamas?"

"Disguise," Amy shrugged.

"They wouldn't let us come to visit, so we came here to get you out and setting this up was the only way to do it," Gwen explained with a broad grin.

"Get me out?" the old man repeated in surprise, just as Rhys walked up behind them. "Oh; Rhys is here too?"

"Hiya, Geraint," Rhys said as Gwen pulled her father's blanket off. "All right? I've got the lorry, ready to go."

"Let's go, Dad," Gwen said, helping the old man sit up. "What have you got, shoes or just slippers?"

"Where are we going?"

"It's not safe here, Dad, OK?" Gwen repeated, clearly not ready for that particular conversation right now. "I'm gonna take you home."

"What do you mean it's not safe?" her father looked at her with new urgency.

"You know all those things I used to investigate with Torchwood?" Gwen explained. "This is one of them. Haven't the time to explain now, but you've got to come with me, Dad, OK?"

"Right you are then," Mr Cooper said, smiling at her in understanding.

"OK, that's it," Gwen said, putting a blanket over her father's shoulders before she and Rhys helped him to his feet and began to walk him out. "That's it, as fast as we can."

With Gwen and Rhys leading her father out of the camp, Amy was left to walk close behind them, keeping a discreet distance while also making sure nobody was paying them any particular attention. Fortunately, the open design of the camp made it relatively easy to reach the truck Rhys had left outside for this purpose, and it looked like her and Gwen's nurse outfits were enough to deter casual queries about what they were doing with an obvious patient.

"That's it," Gwen smiled encouragingly at her father. "All right? Almost there, Dad."

"Easiest to have him in the cab," Rhys suggested. "What do you think, Geraint? Can you climb up? We'll give you a hand."

"I can do that, don't worry," Geraint said urgently.

"Amy, you can help me get him up," Gwen called out. "Rhys, you pull him up from the other end."

"Check," Amy nodded, taking up position on the other side of the old man, while Rhys gave his own affirmative response and ran around to the other side of the lorry.

"Are they coming?" Geraint said, looking anxiously around as he opened the door. "Is it safe?"

"Dad, don't panic now, OK?" Gwen said as her father nearly fell into the lorry. "Stay calm; I've got you. Hurry up, hurry up; people are starting to notice…"

Amy recognised that she didn't know that much about natural human frailties, but she knew enough to at least guess that Gwen's father was suffering from a new heart attack when he suddenly called out and moved to hold his chest.

"He doesn't look good," Rhys said before Amy could voice her own thoughts.

"What?" Gwen said, looking at her father in shock as he fell out of the lorry and sat back against the nearest wheel. "Dad?"

"I'm… not sure we can do this right now," Amy looked apologetically at Gwen. "I mean, I get that you want to get him out of here, but this place… they have to be able to do _something_ for him, right?"

"And you're both nurses," Rhys pointed out, even as he shot Amy a grateful look for saying it first.

"…Code one!" Gwen called back towards the camp, waving her hand urgently at her father as a doctor ran over to them. "Assistance needed, please. Code One! I need assistance now! Come on! Look, he's my patient. He's already had a heart attack, all right? Look, he's my dad, okay? He's my father. Now I need you to look after him, please. Is it bad? I got you. Dad?"

Geriant Cooper had just enough awareness to tenderly stroke his daughter's face before the camp doctors moved to take him away from the lorry. A couple of the staff seemed to be curious about what a man in Geriant's condition had been doing so far from his bed in the first place, but so far nobody seemed prepared to actually ask the question in favour of focusing on the current dilemma.

_I just wish I could be sure they were doing that because they care and not because they want to give the impression that these camps are running smoothly…_

* * *

When Vera got off Maloney's cart, the Doctor honestly couldn't blame her for her obvious frustration. He'd been on his share of official and unofficial tours over the course of his lives, and the only 'good' thing he could say about this tour so far was that it was basically a masterful exercise in showing people everything while trying not to show them anything 'useful'.  
  
"I'm sorry, where are you going?" Maloney asked as Vera walked towards a long house up against what looked like a wall of the camp.  
  
"I want to see inside," Vera replied.  
  
"And I'm going with her," the Doctor added, walking briskly to catch up with his new associate.  
  
"It's just storage," Maloney protested even as he joined them.  
  
"Every time Doctor Taylor and I want to see anything, you turn us away," Vera countered firmly. "We're here to inspect, so let us do our job."  
  
As soon as they had walked into the building, the Doctor was put uncomfortably in mind of the times he'd come close to concentration camps during his visits to the Second World War (those visits were always dangerous places historically; he could never know if getting one person out would lead to the death of someone who may have some important role to play in post-war events). The room was full of punk beds lined up against one wall, people lying in those beds with stained bandages and a random assortment of sleepwear and bedding, giving the impression that nobody had actually bothered to look at them since they'd been left here.  
  
"Storage?" Vera repeated, looking indignantly back at Maloney. "This is storage?"  
  
"It's only a temporary measure," Maloney said, as Vera noticed more beds on the other side of a set of pillars in the middle of the room.  
  
"Temporary?" the Doctor repeated, giving Maloney the cold glare he normally reserved for the Daleks' utter disregard for life. "This is 'temporary'? And that excuses it?"  
  
"We don't have the staff, we don't have the money, we don't have the room-"  
  
"And would _you_ be willing to stay here?"  
  
"They're all unconscious and they don't have insurance-"  
  
"Where are the nurses?" Vera cut Maloney off. "Have they even been fed? Excuse me, I'm sorry, but how long have you been here?"  
  
"Yesterday," a pale woman said from a small camp-bed on the floor of the room. "They said we had to wait."  
  
"These people, they're just- they're pending," Maloney said as he tried to talk to Vera. "We've got a couple glitches in the system, that's all. I'd point out that ten days ago I had a job in public housing; I think I've adapted very well."  
  
"Please… help me," another man gasped, reaching up to grab at the Doctor's coat. Quickly the Time Lord bent down to look the man over properly before he stood back up to face Maloney.  
  
"You are aware that this man is wearing a red peg while still being conscious?" he looked coldly at the camp organiser. "In other words, he's classed as a Category One when he's a Category _Two_?"  
  
"So we made a mistake," Maloney countered with a nonchalance that essentially destroyed any tentative thought the Doctor might have had of classing Maloney as a man who was just dealing with an impossible situation. "Hundreds of patients, one mistake; that's an excellent hit rate-"  
  
"When you're dealing with anything _other_ than human lives," the Doctor cut Maloney off. "One mistake is acceptable when you're dealing with filing; if you're dealing with human lives, one mistake _cannot_ be tolerated in an operation of this scale."  
  
"I think we should step outside; we're disturbing the patients-"  
  
"What else are you hiding?" Vera said as she walked down a corridor into an area filled with sheets practically piled on top of each other. "Is this laundry? Are these bed sheets? Oh my God, this place is stinking!"  
  
"I think you've forgotten America's in crisis-"  
  
"The _world_ is in crisis, Mr Maloney," the Doctor said, refusing to let this man even attempt to justify his escalating mistakes. "If you honestly believe you're doing a good job in this situation, let me ask you this; would _you_ like to be left here?"  
  
"I'm under budget-!"  
  
"You're supposed to _spend_ the money, not praise yourself for staying under some _budget_!" Vera spat in contempt. "This is why a system like this is never going to work; because it's always going to be run by men like you!"  
  
"Oh, so what are you going to do?" Maloney asked. "What will you do? Report me?"  
  
"Oh, we're going to do more than that," Vera vowed with low contempt. "We'll have you prosecuted!"  
  
"Oh, you're so full of it-"  
  
"No, _you_ are full of it," the Doctor cut Maloney off, fixing him with the kind of intense glare he'd perfected when he _really_ needed to make a point in his fifth and eighth bodies in particular. "When we are dealing with human lives, you cannot reduce them to a 'budget'; you do everything in your power to _protect_ those lives!"  
  
"You don't understand-!" Maloney tried to protest.  
  
"We 'understand' that you're going be prosecuted for causing harm to those people in your care, and you will be found guilty as charged," Vera affirmed. "I guarantee you're going to jail, you stupid little man. I'm gonna see you inside a prison cell, you limp-dick little coward."  
  
"You really think you have-?" Maloney began.  
  
"Shut _up_ ," the Doctor said, keeping his tone low as he walked over to stand directly in front of Maloney.  
  
"Doctor Taylor, you can't just-!"  
  
"I think you'll find that I _actually_ have the authority to do whatever I wish in situations like this," the Doctor cut the camp supervisor off. "I don't normally use that authority when dealing with human stupidity rather than some external threat, even when faced with situations like this, but you're such a… I believe 'git' is the appropriate term?"  
  
" _Git_?" Maloney repeated in what was probably intended to be an indignant manner but just made him sound like some high-voiced cartoon character. "Doctor Taylor, just w-who do you-?"  
  
"I am not 'Doctor Ian Taylor', Mr Maloney; I am simply 'the Doctor'," the Doctor said, giving Maloney a glare of cold contempt. "I have been a scientific advisor for an elite government task force for at least as long as you have been alive, I have travelled across time and space for longer than your civilisation has existed, I have encountered some of the most twisted and evil beings that the universe has ever produced… and in that time, I can honestly say that I have never encountered such a pathetic _git_ as yourself."  
  
"Th-that's not-" Maloney began, as Vera and Ralph watched the confrontation in silence.  
  
"Your world just lost the ability to die, Mr Maloney; I think your ability to accept outrageous claims should have grown after something like that," the Doctor cut him off, before he shook his head. "But that reaction just proves my colleague's point; you are a small man who took power in his little kingdom and has such a small perspective that you're doing 'good' because you're sticking to a _budget_."  
  
"I was just- I'm trying-!"  
  
"I have faced monsters whose daily activities would give you nightmares if you were aware of their mere existence, and yet I don't believe I have ever come to hate most of them quite as quickly as I have come to loathe _you_ , Mr Maloney," the Doctor interjected once again, folding his arms and giving the man a firm stare. "The worst part is that I do believe, in your own sad little way, you think you're doing the right thing, but that just makes it even more horrific. The nightmares at least know that their goals and methods are evil, but you don't even have the strength to be honest with yourself about what you are."  
  
"I'm trying to keep this place in order-"  
  
"I repeat, you are a small man in a large world who's convinced himself that he's carved out a fair-sized piece of the kingdom because you're operating _within your budget_ ," the Doctor retorted, giving the last few words all the contempt he could. "Order and chaos aren't that easy to balance, Mr Maloney; if you honestly can't see what's wrong with this scenario, you should never have been given any authority _anywhere_."  
  
"I'm _trying_ -!" Maloney protested, suddenly reaching back to try and grab a gun hanging at Ralph's side, only for Vera to kick him sharply between the legs before he could aim it properly at anyone. Maloney dropped the gun and fell to the ground with a semi-strangled scream of agony as he clutched at his groin, only for that scream to end when the doctor punched him in the face and sent him to the ground.  
  
"Officially, I must state that I completely disapprove of that response and stand by my own beliefs that violence doesn't solve anything," the Doctor said as he looked at the now-unconscious Maloney before he gave Vera an approving nod. "Unofficially, and just between the two of us, I'll call that one of the exceptional cases where I'm willing to bend the rule."  
  
"B-but- Mr Maloney- you can't-!" Ralph began.  
  
"We can and we will," Vera said firmly as she looked at Ralph. "Get him somewhere he can't bother anyone and nobody can bother him for the next few hours; I'm going to see about getting things done _properly_ in this camp."  
  
"And if anyone asks, please remember that we're authorised inspectors; we have every right to step in if we disapprove of the way things are being done," the Doctor smiled politely at Ralph before turning back to Vera. "Now then, you find somewhere we can leave this man and deal with things at the top, and I'll try and track down our inside men."

* * *

Getting into the building while avoiding the crowd gathered for the rally had been a challenge, but Jack had grown used to sneaking into places even before he became an immortal time-traveller and had to rely on faked credentials to get most of his work done. Even with most of Torchwood's official credentials lost, it hadn't been hard to find a secure way into the building, which left him and Natalie free to explore the area where Oswald Danes would soon be addressing the public. Jack had noticed Dane's apparent PR woman talking with an unfamiliar face during their search of the stadium, but for the moment he was going to focus his attention on Danes and work out exactly where she fit into the equation later.  
  
"Mister Jack Harkness," Danes said, walking away from the crowd waiting for his speech at the other end of the corridor to greet his two unexpected visitors. "I could accuse you of having an obsession with me… and who is this?"  
  
"Natalie Kreiner," Natalie replied, fixing the murderer with a cool stare, grateful that she'd gone with Jack's suggestion to wear a coat and purchased a dark leather jacket on their way to the stadium. She could certainly handle Oswald Danes in a fight, but she didn't want to think about the man _looking_ at her if more of her body was 'on display' in her usual clothes…  
  
"What happens afterward, Oswald, when the fever dies down and the world wakes up to the fact that a murderer is standing centre stage?" Jack replied, ignoring the former teacher's question. "Somewhere out there, those men are waiting for you in the dark."  
  
"I can smell them," Danes smiled, apparently enjoying the thought of the scenario Jack was proposing. "Their pits are soaked with sweat and bile."  
  
"But what if… you became a hero instead?"  
  
Natalie fought down her initial shock at that suggestion; Jack Harkness wouldn't make an offer like that to a man like Danes without a clear plan in mind, and it didn't involve making this man a 'Get Out of Jail Free' pass.  
  
"Certainly, that would be good," Danes said speculatively.  
  
"You're about to go out onstage and talk to the world with a happy little PhiCorp speech, yeah?" Jack elaborated as he held out a new piece of paper. "But you could use this moment, Oswald. Here's your speech. Say those words instead. PhiCorp knew about the Miracle. They've been ready for years. That's the proof, all written down ready for everyone to hear it."  
  
"You want my help?" Danes looked at Jack.  
  
"We want anyone's help," Jack said; Natalie could only hope that the immortal captain was exaggerating the scale of their helplessness to make Danes feel like they needed him. "Even my most experienced colleagues have never dealt with anything like this, but you… you could expose PhiCorp live on air and help me change the world."  
  
"We'd be partners?" Danes asked.  
  
"You'd play an important part in our efforts," Natalie conceded; they might need the man right now, but she didn't want him to get too big an opinion of himself.  
  
"And what would I get out of it?" Danes asked.  
  
"End the Miracle, and then you can die," Jack responded. "You're an intelligent man, Oswald, which means you're smart enough to know who you are and acknowledge that you want it to end. You help us, and I _promise_ , we willhelp you to die."  
  
"Oswald," the young publicity agent yelled as she ran up towards him. "Oswald, they've been looking for you. You're on in thirty seconds."  
  
"Yeah, sure, certainly," Danes said.  
  
"Just think about it, and do the right thing," Natalie said solemnly, reaching over to briefly pat Oswald's shoulder.  
  
"I'm sorry, who are you?" the woman looked between Jack and Natalie as Danes walked down the corridor.  
  
"You've got one chance," Jack said, ignoring the woman as he kept his gaze fixed on the convicted killer now walking away. "Take it."  
  
"One chance for what?" the woman looked at Jack in confusion. "What exactly did you just say to him?"  
  
"Maybe you're about to find out," Natalie grinned at the other woman, hoping that she was conveying her father's usual enigmatic grin.  
  
"Who are you?" the red-haired woman said.  
  
"Don't miss the speech," Jack replied with a smile that Natalie was certain even her father would consider mocking rather than flirtatious. As the formerly-immortal captain walked away, the woman pulled out her phone, but Natalie grabbed her wrist and shot a cool glare at the other woman.  
  
"We don't do pictures," she said with a brief grin. "Frankly, we have no interest in your particular services; we like to stay discreet."  
  
That said, she tossed the phone to the side and hurried after Jack while the redhead ran for the phone. Maybe what she'd done was a bit petty, but if that woman was working with a man like Oswald Danes, Natalie doubted that even her dad would insist that she treat the woman particularly well, and she definitely didn't want anyone working with Danes to have a picture of them. By the time Natalie had joined Jack up at the back of the crowd near the entrance to the seating area, Danes was standing at the podium in the centre of the stage, a crowd of people cheering around him, although the cheers died down as Danes began to talk.  
  
"What do I want?" Danes began, seemingly sweating as he looked around the hall and down at his podium as though trying to keep track of his words. "That's the question. All these years on this Earth, what do I really want?"  
  
"Children, you bastard!" a voice called out from the crowd, which at least assured Natalie that some people _were_ remembering what this man had done.  
  
"No," Danes responded. "Because that's my curse. I'm cursed with the knowledge of that deep down in my soul, sir. And that's my tragedy. It's who I am."  
  
"You're a loser!" another man called out  
  
"All these… all right… all these fancy words, they're no help to me," Oswald said, briefly dropping his speech and running to the side to pick it back up. "And these, these, these won't help me either. The truth is I know what I am. And I know what you are too. Yes, I do. Each and every one of you. Because I know for certain what has happened to the human race. I know because this has happened before."  
  
A quick glance at Jack was enough for Natalie to confirm that Oswald wasn't using the speech Jack had written for him, but right now all they could do was hope that Danes would move back to their version of the speech at the right moment.  
  
"Fifty thousand years BC," Danes continued, taking a microphone and moving away from the podium as he continued to address the crowd. "What's called the Great Leap Forward. Human beings suddenly, we started to bury our dead. We created art and money and love. They loved. They learned to love. We made a leap from animal to human. And now, right now, in our very own lifetimes… it has happened again. The next Great Leap."  
  
When people began to cheer, Natalie couldn't believe anyone in the crowd were going along with this speech; the idea that a man like Oswald Danes could be forgiven because he was saying all these fancy words just baffled her…  
  
"We have made it from animal to human to what?" Danes said. "This is the question. After Miracle Day, what are we now? I know. This is something I know because I am the man who has lost heaven forever, so I can feel the truth of it. I'm telling you, man… has risen _again_. Now he has a new name. And his name… is… Angel. Angel. Angel."  
  
As the sudden silence was replaced by people chanting Oswald's name from the crowd, Natalie now knew that this wasn't going to work out the way she and Jack had hoped.  
  
"We are angels," Oswald continued. "We have been elevated. We have been purified. We have been given life unending. We are the first angels on Earth. And I promise you this. There are even those who have been planning for this, the agents of angels in this brand new world. I'm telling you right now, they stand amongst us. Yes! For this is my Revelation!"  
  
As the PhiCorp logo appeared on the screen behind Oswald to rapturous cheers from the crowd, Natalie could only exchange grim glances with Jack. The grim expression on Jack's face made it clear that any hope of using Oswald as an immediate 'in' to this conspiracy wasn't an option right now, but they'd at least made contact with the man and sown the seeds for something later.


End file.
